A Clash of Values and Auras
by Aines445
Summary: After the seasons begin to stabilize, what seemed like a mere rumor becomes a potential reality pertaining a new crisis for Gensokyo's balance. Faced with a foreign power, a pressuring force in the form of a faint white aura, Reimu Hakurei sets out to investigate and defeat its source. However, as otherworldly values clash, she sees that the process will not be as simple as usual.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

* * *

In between the faintest of breezes, a rush of wind cut through the sky at blinding speeds. A panicked flight, intended for a clean escape, was the origin of the unnatural swaying of this wind. Anxious eyes glanced back for something, someone; nothing but the clouds in the sky were visible. Even without the threat in sight, however, the memories of the encounter remained.

Her own confident demeanor, predicting her victory against her opponent, turned into a stressful unease condensed into desperate panic; a sense of danger. A slight fear of death. From the moment the shockwave of his blow mixed with the overwhelming pressure, completely obliterating the little guard she had put up for what she had not previously perceived to be a real duel, she had felt the imminent danger. A power, never before seen. A white vapor had leaked from his robust figure, weighing down on the air of the outskirts of the Human Village.

Only after some time into the fight had she thought of the rumors, and reflexively ran for one significant location distant from the village. As a regular, she had known the path perfectly, and readied her broom to take flight with the only arm that seemed to properly move. However, she had not noticed the mistake she had committed in turning her back from her opponent. The recollection of the heavy sensation that had made her face him again was still fresh in her mind. Had she been slower in checking on the man's actions, his attack would have connected with her torso, perhaps piercing it the same way it had pierced so easily through the dark cloth. Had she not lost her balance, tripping over a prominent branch and irregularly positioning her foot far too much to the side, the fall would not have saved her from further damage.

Even so, the throbbing pain remained, and a singed scent could still be felt. She willed herself to ignore those, as her priorities lay elsewhere. She had escaped the duel for more than one reason, after all. An important realization had befallen her upon meeting with that man. She had long but connected the dots, and kept noting them in her mind so as to best phrase them openly.

The rumors; the unknown power; the human she had encountered. All of them led to a sinister conclusion. A reality she had only now started to believe. As such, she had seen past her own pain for one purpose.

 _I've gotta tell her,_ she thought, _I've gotta tell her before it's too late...!_


	2. Chapter 1

**First Words:**

* * *

First of all, welcome, and thank you for reading the prologue and for seemingly continuing to read. I do hope this can live up to expectations! Regardless, I'll make this brief: this story is organized in about three sections, these being the First Words, the Chapter and the Author's Notes. The Chapter's obvious, but the other two, in essence, are different kinds of notes. The Author's Notes are general commentary about the Chapter, while the First Words contain the practical information (glossaries, numbers of favorites/followers, pressing questions) and guest review responses.

Naturally, the section you'd need most to read would be the First Words, but even then you really only need the glossaries, and I'll make that part noticeable for you; everything else would only have meaning to the specific parties it's targetted. Meanwhile, the Author's Notes are purely there for curiosity's sake, as in, if any of you are interested in knowing what I thought of this or that or might be wondering about behind-the-scenes stuff (without any spoilers, of course), it's all there for you to read at your leisure. With that in mind, the Author's Notes are _absolutely not necessary_ for you to understand the story and can be quite long (though I will try to cut all parts I feel unnecessary and make it shorter), so, as it's really just a sort of bonus, you can skim or not read them in the slightest and there would be no repercussions to your reading experience.

Whatever the case, this is probably the longest the First Words will ever be (unless I get a lot of guest reviews) since it's the first chapter, so hopefully I didn't scare you away!

"..." = Dialogue;

'...' = Quotation marks, mocking tone;

 _itallics = thoughts, emphasis;_

 **bold = intensity;**

 _ **itallics and bold = extra intensity;**_

 **. . . = Long pause; if surrounded by horizontal lines and centered, it stands for a scene transition.**

Enjoy!

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 **Chapter 1: Conflict is but the Origin of the Journey  
**

* * *

The end of the Summer had marked the fall of all cherry blossom petals in the barely naked trees surrounding the Hakurei Shrine, located near the border separating Gensokyo from the Outside World. Without the power of the fairies enhanced, the seasons were bound to stabilize, and the temperature in the shrine finally lowered to a normal amount for Autumn. As a chilly breeze coursed through the shrine grounds, an all-too-familiar shrine maiden sighed.

Reimu Hakurei had no regrets in solving the incident and defeating the culprit. However, at the time, she had not foreseen the hard work that would come out of sweeping the many fallen cherry blossom petals in the surroundings. Even now, she continued slowly and carelessly swinging her broom back and forth as various mental images of flower viewing parties surged in her mind. _Flower-viewing parties are nice and all, but cleaning up is such a pain,_ Reimu thought as she eyed the ground in a somewhat displeased fashion. _At least the real Spring doesn't have the cherry blossom petals_ plus _leaves falling all at once. What a workload..._

The faint breeze then grew in strength, causing violent winds to threaten the stability of the large, red ribbon on the back of her head. Reimu laid the broom on a nearby tree before adjusting the ribbon, tightening its hold over a portion of her dark brown hair, and swatted a small dried leaf from her head. "Well, at least I got to enjoy Spring for a while," Reimu muttered while taking back her broom and resuming her easygoing sweeping. Though, at a sudden remembrance from the previous incident, Reimu glanced over the shrine grounds.

As far as she could sense, Reimu was alone. There were no signs of the komainu she had defeated in the incident. Reimu faintly thought of Aunn's whereabouts. She had asserted she preferred taking down simple enemies without being sighted and surely enough, her presence was rarely felt by Reimu even after she had found her and used her to reach the culprit behind the incident. "I guess she's not always watching over this shrine, so that makes sense..." Reimu vaguely remembered Aunn mentioning that she worked for all religious establishments, including the Myouren Temple and the Moriya Shrine. The prospect had soured her mood the first time she had heard of it, but the grimace Reimu was presently wearing had not originated from Aunn or her whereabouts.

Reimu looked up at the cloudy sky, locking eyes with a hidden Sun. She had searched for something to think about, something conclusive to fill up her time; something that could serve as a lead in pinpointing the bad feeling growing within her. _Even though I've been patrolling the premises for the past few days, I haven't spotted anyone yet,_ Reimu thought, _I haven't heard of any suspicious activity, or seen any anomaly to speak of. If Aunn's been here, she hasn't caught anyone either. Still, I can't deny the fact that something's wrong._ Her intuition screamed so already, but Reimu had somewhat of a basis for her conclusion.

Before she could ponder on it so as to jog her memory, another strong wind blew above the shrine, with Reimu only being affected by its weaker remnants reaching towards the ground she was standing on. The source of the brief wind was on her line of sight, and she continued to curiously follow it as it descended the sky. "Marisa?" Reimu uttered in confusion, though she had no trouble recognizing the person who visited her. Without a shadow of a doubt, the girl who had landed and grasped an old-seeming broom with her left hand was Marisa Kirisame, someone who regularly stopped by the shrine. "What happened to you?"

However, Reimu perceived a few key differences in Marisa's stance that led her to believe something had occurred. Marisa was panting heavily, which justified her delay in responding to Reimu when she had called her name (consequently causing Reimu to say something else to fill the silence). Moreover, her black and white clothing was heavily tattered, and a large, gaping hole could be seen on her large hat. Burn marks were on varying spots of her white clothes, and faint dirt stains littered her black skirt, which had been seemingly torn in some of its ends. As if unable to pick up her pace, Marisa clumsily approached Reimu while bitterly scowling. "About that..." Marisa's right arm, which had been hanging crooked near Marisa's waist, throbbing in pain, twitched as it bent itself inwards, reaching for her chest, but the disconcerting movement caused Marisa to loudly wince. Reimu's eyes widened in sudden concern as she processed the severity of Marisa's injury. "I got done in..."

"I can see _that!_ " Reimu remarked in anger, still uncertain of what to make of Marisa's condition. "Your arm's broken!" She pressed a hand onto Marisa's back so as to push her in the direction of the shrine building, urging her to walk inside. "Just what kind of youkai did you mess with? Is there an incident going on? If so, you better tell me everything about it!"

Though Marisa complied and stepped inside the shrine accompanied by a livid Reimu confronted with the prospect of a clear incident, she was mainly staring down at her arm, as it continued to ache. "Damn it, this hurts like hell..."

"What else were you expecting? Of course it hurts!" Reimu retorted while following Marisa's gaze. Marisa's forearm was visibly swollen, and its position was not entirely natural, as if the arm had been unable to properly bend. "Besides, if it's this bad, why did you come over here? I'm not a doctor, you know?"

"I was panickin' back then," Marisa explained in a slightly strained voice, "so the only thing I was thinking about was that I needed to warn you." Then, Marisa turned her head to Reimu's direction with an exceedingly serious expression, locking eyes with a disconcerted Reimu. "I don't know if this is big enough to make it an incident yet, but it'll surprise ya." Marisa briefly glanced towards her broken arm. "This wasn't the work of any youkai."

Reimu's mind immediately reached out for all available possibilities as a thin, cold frown adorned her pale features, but she had been too late in arriving to a conclusion. Before she could speak up, Marisa cleanly stated, "I was attacked by a human from the village."

Reimu's eyes narrowed and her frown deepened in confusion and disbelief. "A human?" she questioned as she slid the door to her bedroom open. "And they weren't possessed by a youkai or anything?"

"I couldn't tell. The guy acted normal, but his power was somethin' else." Reimu and Marisa entered the room while Marisa had been speaking, and Reimu, whose pace was considerably faster, stepped near her futon and looked down at it in a pensive manner. "He went up to me when I was leaving the village and said he wanted a duel. I tried turning him down at first, but he kept insisting. When I told him it'd be dangerous for him, he started leaking this white energy from his body. I figured he had some trick up his sleeve, so I got curious and ended up accepting."

"... And you're sure he's from the village?" Reimu calmly, if not even stoicly asked, seeing as her expression was but a cold frown and gaze.

Marisa nodded. "He apparently wanted to test out his power before taking down youkai himself. I thought he was out of his mind before I started taking him on." With her left hand, she pointed to her hat before taking it from her head so as to allow a closer look from Reimu. "The worst part is that he was supposed to be goin' easy on me, but he wasn't even playing by the rules. If I hadn't blocked his fist with my arm, I would've broken my ribs instead," Marisa ominously said before putting the hat back on her head, though could not help but avert her gaze from it upon seeing the hole. She showed some unease in her expression, but her voice as she spoke depicted only hints of frustration over said unease: "That guy was crazy strong. If what he was using is the new power the village has been talking about, this could be something to watch out for."

Suddenly, though it was not enough to surprise a fatigued Marisa, Reimu flinched, almost anxiously so. "They were talking about something like that? You mean this power is widespread?" Reimu asked in a vaguely distraught fashion, but her gaze remained ominously cool under her general surprise.

"I've only seen it in action today, but it might be. The rumors have been around for months now," Marisa answered, "I was only ignoring them because I didn't believe 'em. Besides, I was so distracted with the last incident I didn't even think about them that hard."

The more Reimu pondered on it, the more she faintly remembered a certain rumor from the last times she had to shop in the village. However, like Marisa, she had paid it no mind, especially as there was no active implication that they were true. Furthermore, with the last incident having been centered on an increase in power from fairies and youkai, Reimu had thought the rumors were influenced by it. As complete frustration and dejection washed over her, Reimu buried her face in her hands. "This can't be happening..."

"I can't be sure it's something huge enough to make Gensokyo's balance crumble, but I thought I should tell you about it anyway." Marisa wryly frowned. "It could still be an incident, after all; ya never know. And now that I'm this beat up," Marisa said while pointing to Reimu with her left hand, "You're the only one who can take care of this, so you gotta get on it for me and give me all juicy details while I take it easy."

Reimu's hands slowly slid down her face, revealing a piercing glare and a scowl. "Taking care of things like these is my job," Reimu sharply asserted, "I'm the only one who should be handling it to begin with." Then, she crossed her arms as she faced Marisa. "Anyway, I'll bring someone over here to look over that arm, so go lie down on my futon until I get back."

"If ya say so..." _Who's she plannin' to bring over? No doctor from the village would wanna go through the path to the shrine,_ Marisa thought as she walked towards the futon, though she felt hesitant in lying down considering the state of her clothing. Regardless, she complied with Reimu, knowing she would not budge otherwise.

"After that, you're going to describe the man to me and tell me anything you know about the rumors spreading in the village," Reimu said, "If anyone stops by while I'm gone, tell them to stay put and wait for me, especially if it's Yukari or Okina. They probably know what's going on better than I do, and I'm not about to lose any leads I could have on the culprit. If my intuition is right, this could be one of the most dangerous incidents Gensokyo's faced."

Marisa's eyes widened in shock. "It's that bad?"

"Considering there's also someone tampering with the barrier, I'd say it could be even worse than you thought," Reimu countered with a bitter voice, especially as she reminded herself of what she had been pondering before Marisa's sudden visit. "If whoever's behind that is also responsible for that power you faced, the only thing I could conclude out of it is that somebody is seriously trying to destroy Gensokyo's current balance."

Marisa was at a loss for words over the prospect. Reimu's footsteps resounded in the room before Marisa processed that she had left without uttering anything further, presumably because she was in that much of a hurry to delve into the incident.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

A hand rested on Reimu's chin as she paced around the room in a mix of frustration and concern. Truthfully, a sense of alarm had haunted her mind, and it had only intensified at the discovery of the nature of Marisa's injury. Though she had meant to formulate some sort of plan to take action, her thoughts continued to drift towards Eirin Yagokoro, who she had forcefully brought to the shrine to check on Marisa.

Though her expression was serious and focused, her overall demeanor beforehand had been soft, but overwhelmingly smug, which invited an additional sense of stress from Reimu and Marisa. Marisa was staring at Eirin expectantly, while Eirin herself seemed entirely focused on her check-up to the point where she was completely ignoring Marisa and Reimu's negativity. Then, Eirin faced Reimu, who stopped upon noticing that. "I can see why you were so desperate now," she remarked while looking down at Marisa's arm. Eirin had been kneeling next to Marisa, who was resting in Reimu's futon. "As you said, Reisen alone wouldn't have been able to treat this injury."

Marisa reflexively grimaced, possessing no energy to physically move any other part of her body comfortably. "S-seriously?" Marisa incredulously uttered.

"It may as well be a miracle that you can still move your arm. The bones in your forearm are fractured, and the loss of sensation you've just started experiencing is probably from the excessive swelling cutting off your hand's blood supply." Knowing neither Reimu or Marisa possessed the same amount of medical knowledge she had, Eirin had attempted a simple explanation, though the injury itself was far from simple. "Treating a fracture of this caliber will definitely require surgery."

 **"Surgery?!"** Reimu and Marisa shouted at the same time, unable to contain their shock. They glanced each other's way in extreme unease before shifting their attention back to Eirin, whose expression was calm and composed, contrasting with their mental states.

Eirin elegantly nodded before stating, "In fact, delaying the surgery any further could result in loss of sensation of the forearm altogether, along with the little mobility it's retained." She then faced Reimu. "I'll need you to call Reisen over here at once. Despite my medical knowledge, I am still primarily a pharmacist, and I've only two arms with work with. Her assistance will be necessary."

"Wait, we're doin' it right now? You gotta be kidding me!" Marisa flailed her left arm frantically as the reality of the situation continued crashing on her, only to point towards her chest. "M-my heart's not ready for something like that!"

"Whatever you may feel now, you would do well to accept the situation," Eirin said, her voice more assertive than her words would imply, "Otherwise, it will be too late to treat your injury."

Marisa glared Eirin's way for half a minute, while Reimu pondered on the situation. Then, among the silence (and Eirin's unfazed, if not slightly condescending stance despite Marisa's emotionality), Marisa groaned. "Fine! I don't care if it's a surgery or not, just do whatever you want! It better get my arm fixed, though!" Truthfully, Marisa was still far from ready for the moment. She had only superficially resigned to the prospect, knowing she had no choice in the matter.

However, against expectations, that alone had been satisfactory for Eirin. Internally, she chuckled at herself. _How low my standards have fallen,_ she lightly, though solemnly thought before considering what to tell Marisa. A small, almost enigmatic smile formed on her lips, combining both warm kindness and bitter resignation. "If I hadn't intended to properly treat you, I wouldn't have bothered to go here in the first place," was Eirin's only response before the sound of a sliding door was heard from afar, leading Reimu, Marisa and Eirin to shift their focus to the direction the origin had presumably resided.

"Good grief," a familiar voice uttered from behind the closed door to the room Reimu, Marisa and Eirin were situated in. As the door was opened, a pink-haired figure stood before them. "Just what is this commotion about? I could hear Marisa from afar."

"Kasen!" Marisa exclaimed in surprise, "You've gotta hear me out! I was done in by **—**!"

"By someone with that rumored power, right?" Kasen softly questioned, though the sudden interjection had silenced Marisa mid-sentence, especially as she found herself processing her words. "It looks like they've only started making a move now."

"You knew about this?" Reimu asked, glaring Kasen's way.

"I knew about the rumors," Kasen countered, "but I had no idea they were real until now. I was going to warn you about this, but I was too late if Marisa's injuries are any indication." Kasen finally steps inside the room while narrowing her eyes, locking them onto Marisa's arm. She wore a concerned frown, but her stance was surprisingly firm, even as she squatted down to Marisa's eye level. "That arm looks horrible..." Kasen glanced to the side, where Eirin was kneeled. "If memory serves me right, you're one of the People of the Moon living in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, aren't you?"

Eirin stared into Kasen's eyes as if to scrutinize her intentions. Her expression indicated an overwhelming composure, but she had truthfully been deep in thought about her next course of action. Sparing Marisa one deliberate glance, Eirin said, "More importantly, do you happen to have any medical knowledge? We don't truly have the time to leisurely chat right now. Assuming I'm correct in thinking you are the hermit I've heard of, you may be able to assist me in the surgery."

Marisa gulped while Reimu looked down at Marisa sympathetically, having guessed she would react to hearing the word alone. Meanwhile, Kasen grimaced. "I can see why you'd say that. I wouldn't mind helping you, but shouldn't we move Marisa elsewhere? The shrine isn't exactly appropriate for surgery."

"I'd told Reimu to take her to me, but she insisted I come," Eirin responded while seemingly shrugging in a loose manner, "She seemed almost ready to bring me here by force." Not a single change in Kasen's expression was verifiable, and Reimu and Marisa were occupied with each other, but her mind stirred with thought. Eirin, too, had shown no explicit changes in her attitude, so Kasen was instead focused on what she had affirmed. _Would someone who barely leaves Eientei come to the shrine for a reason as simple as that?_ Kasen thought, _After all, if I was able to take note of that new energy, she should also have some idea of it. Just what is her goal...?_ "Though, now that there are three of us here, we could always take Marisa to Eientei and get started. It would certainly be safer than just calling Reisen over here, considering my residence is better equiped."

Unable to reach a conclusion to her thoughts due to lack of evidence, Kasen's stance relaxed as she stood up. "Then, I suppose I'll take the legs. Reimu, could you try carrying Marisa by the torso?"

"Huh?" Reimu uttered after suddenly noticing Kasen was talking to her, seeing as she had been busy with Marisa beforehand.

Meanwhile, Marisa had been quick to process the situation. "Don't just break my legs like that; I can still walk!" Marisa jumped from the futon using only her left arm to support her full weight, only to wobble ever so slightly from the lack of balance. "See?" Marisa stepped out of the futon as a demonstration with a small, albeit proud smile. "If we're goin' somewhere, I'm taking myself there."

However, at said demonstration, Kasen and Eirin's expressions only showed more concern. "It may be for the best to look through more than your broken arm," Eirin stated, "I wouldn't be surprised if you'd sustained more injuries than that."

Kasen nodded. "Agreed."

 _What a bunch of worrywarts,_ Marisa bitterly thought while blankly staring at Eirin and Kasen. Eirin had stood from her kneeling position as well and, as far as Marisa could see, the two were already preparing to leave. "Let's just get it over with, then," Marisa said in a seemingly fatigued fashion, though her left hand visibly trembled from sheer apprehension. "I don't wanna keep fussing about this... Surgery thing..."

Reimu crossed her arms. "Geez, it's not like you're going to die or anything," she retorted before facing Eirin with an uneasy smile. "Right?"

"You don't look very confident about that," Marisa dryly argued while masking her anxiety over Eirin's response.

Meanwhile, Eirin softly chuckled before flashing them a smile. "Well, you can't be sure until you try." With that, Eirin left the room, seemingly to leave the Hakurei Shrine and head for Eientei, her residence. Kasen glanced in her direction when she passed by, but focused on Reimu and Marisa knowing that they were feeling anxious and frustrated from Eirin's vague answer.

"She was joking, you know?" Kasen awkwardly pointed out. "Considering you were fighting someone with an unknown power, you're lucky only your arm was broken." Then, she walked for the room's exit while glancing behind her. "Now, let's get going." As she noted Reimu and Marisa's innocent presences, expressing genuine emotion, Kasen gently smiled. "Don't worry, Marisa. I don't know about the Lunarian, but I'll make sure you won't die." Despite the joking tone, or, in fact, because of it, Reimu and Marisa's moods only soured as they stared at Kasen leave.

... They begrudgingly followed suit, with Reimu by Marisa's right side watching over the injury.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Ultimately, Reimu realized she had not been able to get a description of the man that attacked Marisa, but she had no means to question Marisa now that she was at Eientei. Seeing as Reimu had no knowledge with which to aid Eirin, Kasen and Reisen, she was sent away to occupy her time with something else.

The sky gradually darkened with the setting sun, marking the late afternoon, and Reimu floated within so as to reach the Hakurei Shrine once more. For some time, Marisa's condition settled on Reimu's mind: despite Marisa claiming to be able to walk, her left ankle had been mildly sprained, and upon closer inspection, lightly swollen, and it was easy to theorize Marisa had taken a wrong step while dodging one of the man's attacks and hurt her ankle without realizing it. That, accompanied by several bruises only fanned the fire of Reimu's current anger from the surfacing incident. She already knew the actions the culprit was taking, but she had no leads. Whether the mastermind was Marisa's attacker or not, Reimu could not pursue him with confidence.

Furthermore, the late afternoon was also a time most humans would start returning to their homes so as to remain safe by nighttime. As such, it was unlikely that she could now ask around the village, leading Reimu to instead focus on the shrine. Though the mysterious surging power was a motive of concern, Reimu was equally concerned with the barrier, which was being tampered with on a daily basis as of late. Naturally, the perpetrator had not succeeded in taking down or changing the barrier: as far as Reimu could presume, the culprit was likely trying to tamper with the barrier and failing to do so, either out of a lack of knowledge in barriers, or because they were being stopped by someone before Reimu. However, Reimu had also considered the possibility that the culprit was not attempting to physically change the barrier, but to decode its properties instead.

Regardless of the goal, Reimu knew better than to let someone continue contacting the barrier in such a way. "If they're being so sneaky about it, they must be up to no good," Reimu muttered to herself, her gaze unfocused on the scenery below her. A dimly-shaded path stretched towards a long stairway, indicating Reimu's proximity to the Hakurei Shrine. "Still, if there's someone clearly messing around with the barrier, at least _she_ must've already noticed..."

Reimu stopped moving, though the wind let her sway forward ever so slightly. A sudden disturbance had invaded her thoughts and prevented her from further mumbling to herself as a venting mechanism. Her eyes narrowed in on the Hakurei Shrine as seen from afar, but Reimu had not intended to observe the building itself.

Reimu resumed flying in the shrine's direction while intently staring beyond the shrine, and not losing sight of the faintest traces of the Great Hakurei Barrier. Darkness was already settling in the sky, and the surroundings were much harder to see for Reimu, but nonetheless, she could identify the border of the barrier she had been tasked to oversee, and that someone was currently tampering with it in some way.

However, the disturbance suddenly came to a stop, warranting a frown of confusion from Reimu as she attempted to quicken her flying speed faster than she had already done when heading for the shrine to seemingly stop the culprit. "I'm not letting you get away this time!" Her patrols had resulted in nothing, and she had sensed no presence in the shrine before. Regardless, if someone were to come into contact with the barrier, they would most likely choose a location in which the border was most palpable and prone to the entry of foreign objects. Since the Hakurei Shrine was one of said locations, Reimu had hoped to waste no time in catching the culprit if they did happen to go to the shrine.

In between the increasing darkness of the beginning of the night, a bright light shone on the premises of the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu had cleanly spotted the light, and smiled confidently at the prospect of making some progress in the newly-found incident. She was already almost above the Hakurei Shrine, but it seemed as though the light was situated farther from the building itself than Reimu had anticipated. As she approached the location of the light, a battle cry resounded; the voice had been entirely unfamiliar to Reimu.

Despite that, the moment the light faded and Reimu had positioned herself above it, she found a familiar figure sidestepping a young man's swing of his fist. "Yukari?!" Said familiar figure, Yukari Yakumo, glanced up at Reimu with a sly smile on her face while the young man attacking her stepped back from caution upon hearing Reimu's voice. "What the heck is going on here?!" The young man looked up at her coldly, but Reimu had her eyes entirely focused on Yukari.

"Oh my, if it isn't Reimu," Yukari lightly remarked in sharp contrast to the tense mood of the situation. Despite having just been attacked, Yukari's smile was carefree, with a hint of confident composure behind her naturally elegant stance. On one hand, Yukari held a light pink umbrella in a closed state, though it seemed slightly battered. "You've quite the timing; I was just about done drawing the mastermind out of hiding. You could see that ominous energy from afar, couldn't you? Now, Reimu..." Yukari pointed the umbrella at the young man in a swift, graceful movement as she locked eyes with the cautious-seeming stranger. "Exterminate the human before you at once!"

"What?" Reimu blankly questioned, as if uncertain of how to react. When she finally landed next to Yukari, Reimu awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "Are you saying this guy's the mastermind? He doesn't really look like it." In fact, his scrawny figure and unassuming stance only led Reimu to assume he could hardly count as a boss.

"An extension of the mastermind, to be specific," Yukari added. "Regardless, we must take this man down. Are we clear?" The question left no room for an objection or response, asserting only the importance of her words. Reimu was immediately able to see that Yukari was more than serious about the matter at a deep level; an attitude she would usually verify when working together with Yukari in an incident.

Reimu slowly nodded as she stared at the young man, as if to make sure he would not escape from her sight. While she would have normally thought of the man as a youkai, she had clearly heard Yukari refer to him as a human instead, and that fact rang in her mind. However, considering the strange presence she was feeling from the man and Yukari's claims of the man being only an extension of the mastermind, Reimu had easily, though unfortunately, concluded that there was probably no hope for the young man. Reimu grimaced as her hand reached out for five paper charms. "You better not be tricking me right now," Reimu warned, "because I will take you down alongside him if you are!"

Two ying-yang orbs materialized near Reimu the moment she threw the charms and rushed for the young man who would likely have to move to the right to properly dodge them. Reimu had naturally foreseen that and raised her leg for a kick as she had approached him, only to use the momentum of the raised leg to propel herself to the side and leap away in order to dodge the young man's fist, which had been covered with an intense white aura Reimu could not place. The two ying-yang orbs had flown directly towards the man while she had been moving, preventing an additional attack, and Reimu had been too late to see what effects the attack had beyond the aftermath of one of the ying-yang orbs' collision with the young man's fist.

The ying-yang orb shattered in multiple pieces which scattered at astounding speeds. One of them grazed Reimu's left cheek, and a few others tore tiny holes into Reimu's red skirt, leaving Reimu to widen her eyes in surprise at the sharpness of her own weapon's remnants. The other ying-yang orb faded away by Reimu's will, while Reimu herself took to switching her main weapons to the paper charms instead, knowing there would be no risk of collateral damage with them. Reimu jumped back, using her ability to float as a means to prolong the distance between her and the man, and landed precisely next to Yukari, who had conjured a tear in space from which a familiar weapon was being drawn out. "By the way, didn't you forget something?" Yukari interjected while grabbing what Reimu recognized as her gohei; the Purification Rod.

Reimu huffed before forcefully taking the weapon from Yukari's hand. "How about you actually help me get this over with instead of standing around like that?" Reimu retorted before floating upwards and flying over the young man that had sought to charge Reimu. She then threw two rows of five charms down at the man, who had not expected them to home in on him even as he moved back from the direction they had been aimed towards. The charms chased the young man relentlessly, while Reimu took the chance to fly behind him.

Meanwhile, Yukari lowly chuckled. "Now, Reimu, are you telling me the Hakurei shrine maiden cannot take down a single human on her own?"

Reimu smiled, and threw two more rows of charms from behind before switching her position to the opposite direction, in front of the young man who was bound to turn around to dodge the charms from the gaps provided between them. Reimu then flew for the man at the highest speeds she could muster while raising her Purification Rod, aiming it for the back of the man's head. "I'm saying you're too lazy to do anything yourself!" Reimu exclaimed before swinging her weapon with all her might. The attack cleanly connected to the targeted area, as he recoiled and fell to the ground with a quick thud. Multiple paper charms were stuck to the young man and had caused him to flinch before Reimu had directly attacked him, but they were now devoid of the spiritual energy Reimu had charged them with.

Yukari was stepping towards Reimu when she was shaking the young man's body with her foot. Upon confirming the man was unconscious, she thought of the opponent Marisa had been attacked by. Considering the speed with which she had finished him off, the attacker was either not Marisa's attacker or he was hardly using the level of strength he had exerted on Marisa. Both of Reimu's prevalent hypotheses on the matter had her coldly looking down at the young man as she pondered on the incident.

"Such harsh words coming from the shrine maiden who would have never found the culprit if not for my efforts," Yukari commented in a flimsy manner, showing no signs of true offence. Rather, she took to emphasizing parts of the sentence related to Reimu's performance, which caused Reimu to flinch nervously.

"You just happened to be there when the guy was," Reimu countered.

"For your information, I've been watching over the shrine for the past three days," Yukari said, "all because the culprit had still not been stopped from tampering with the barrier. I was rather disappointed to find you'd somehow not been able to track him down by yourself. I had no choice but to set up an ambush."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who let the culprit continue their evil deeds for three days without moving a finger!" Reimu ardently argued while flailing her weapon around. "Don't you know how serious this incident might be?!"

However, in face of Reimu's burning anger, Yukari expression was only calm, but now lacking in the playful edge she had assumed previously. "I watched over the shrine for three days," Yukari stated, "but only found him on the third by nothing more than sheer luck."

"Huh...?"

"Though he was unable to hide his attempts at the barrier, it seems he had his methods of hiding his own presence. It probably stems from that foreign power," Yukari ominously explained, "Regardless, if I hadn't coincidentally laid eyes on him directly, I would have never spotted him myself." She smiled as she eyed the young man. "Since you were nowhere to be found, I had no choice but to keep him here by force until you arrived."

At the ever so slightly accusatory tone in Yukari's ominous words, Reimu awkwardly frowned. "I couldn't help it, you know? There were some circumstances I had to deal with elsewhere."

"Well, that doesn't matter now," Yukari carelessly uttered. "What we should instead focus on is the human. You'll need to erect a barrier around him."

"Why? He's already unconscious."

"Do you remember what I told you before? This is an extension of the mastermind. If we assume the mastermind themself can cut this extension from their direct influence, would it not be prudent to make sure they're rendered unable to do so?" Yukari elegantly questioned, though she showed no signs of doubt before a confused Reimu. "This man is our only lead at the moment. We cannot let it escape."

After a moment of silence, Reimu sighed. "You've got a point there," she muttered in a low voice before closing her eyes, as if to concentrate.

"Do make it quick. We need to make sure the mastermind's power remains in this man." Reimu graced Yukari with no response while pulling out red paper charms and proceeeding to setting up the barrier, but Yukari was certain that Reimu was vaguely listening. Yukari lightly smiled. "Afterwards, I'll be watching over the body. You, on the other hand, should return to the shrine and rest up for tomorrow." Yukari's long hair swayed in the light breeze coursing through the surroundings, and her smile widened slyly and knowingly. Then, in a calm, though low voice, belying faint amusement, Yukari remarked, "After all, today might have been eventful on its own, but tomorrow will mark the true adventure."

As Reimu finished creating a simple, though sturdy barrier surrounding the body of the unfamiliar young man, she noted that, despite the situation that had led to his unconscious state, he appeared to be faintly smiling.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Struggling with transitions, uuuugh. I have most of the scenes in mind, but starting them and ending them was somewhat of a challenge, with the exception of the first scene. The first scene was pretty easy to start. Having Reimu do nothing interesting is somehow the easiest start to write ever: it calms stuff down before it hits the fan with Marisa and the following scenes. I wasn't sure how the story would turn out at first, but it seems it'll be pretty dark, which doesn't surprise me. I mean, I'm crossing this over with Hunter x Hunter, for goodness' sake!

So, now you're wondering, why Hunter x Hunter and Touhou? You're right in seeing nothing that would normally make people write a crossover between these two things, but I conversely think crossing anything over with Touhou is interesting, so I challenge that notion to begin with. If anything, I think there are too little crossovers with Touhou existent in this website. Come on, the Touhou lore is so great, and the characters so interesting; how can you NOT take the chance to have them interact with different things? My main reason for crossing Touhou over with Hunter x Hunter, however, is that they both have very expansive worlds in which you can do basically anything in. With that in mind, I thought that putting people in the world of Hunter x Hunter would be a very interesting experience, so I set my eyes on Touhou.

Yet again, Reimu is the main character. I can't help it, seeing as she is the most likely person to be the main character. Even in the original series, she's the main character or a prominent character in general. If it's an incident, Reimu's on the case. I can't NOT use Reimu. I know I already did a crossover in which Reimu was mainly around, but she's still too great not to write. I used to just think Reimu's alright, but after writing that crossover, Reimu's among my top 5 and I think she deserves the popularity she has. She's such a multi-faceted character: she can be serious or silly or awkward or cold or excited; it all fits perfectly into one, great character. To me, she's one of the most unique characters I've encountered: you might have met similar characters, but you'll find that there truly is only one Reimu, at least one with the same complexities.

Anyway, I pondered very heavily on Marisa's injuries. That sounds very creepy, but I wanted Marisa to sustain considerable damage in comparison to what usually happens in spellcard battles. People get hurt with spellcard duels, but they'll usually be light cuts or scratches or bruises; light stuff like that. Throughout Touhou, you tendentially don't see characters getting any severe injuries. For example, Marisa got beaten up in Forbidden Scrollery, but she sustained no significant injuries seeing as she just woke up while being able to move around without a hassle. In Wild and Horned Hermit, Marisa got a flashy cut wound from a tiger's strong claws, but it was still just a cut. This is why I felt it'd have impact for Marisa to sustain an injury like breaking her arm. Besides, I wanted to stress on the fact that Marisa had not been having a spellcard duel. As such, she ended up with her forearm broken.

Upon hours of research, I found that forearm fractures are pretty messed up. Most require surgery and the bones are very sharp, so they can cut into blood vessels or nerves (so Marisa was being really dumb when she moved that forearm to her chest, but it was because it also couldn't just hang normally; you have to stabilize the arm's position; still, it was a _super_ risky move). They're actually pretty dangerous to break in relation to the upper arm. Initially, I was worried about having Marisa sustain an injury that messed up, but Marisa had hurt her forearm for a reason, so I couldn't change the location. Because of this, however, bringing in a good doctor was imperative since Marisa's fracture was actually pretty serious (I mean, not open fracture serious, but serious enough to warrant surgery), so I couldn't bring a generic guy from the village, and I wasn't sure if Unshou could do the trick for broken arms or if he even had any of that medicine left to use on Marisa, so I had to bring in Eirin since she would hypothetically have great medical knowledge, enough to know how to properly treat Marisa's specific injury. Still, Eirin is mainly a pharmacist and I was still uneasy, so I had other characters help out. If anything is off about the dialogue pertaining the injury, tell me about it!

It's times like these I wished I were a medicine student or something, but I'm a languages person instead X.X Marisa sounds like she'd be pretty easy to write, but I find her harder to nail than Reimu. Marisa is very human-like, though, so when I'm in doubt, I tend to use common sense as a reference along with her personality. Marisa is pretty upbeat at times, but in others, she also isn't, so it gets me when I'm writing. I try not to have Marisa be too cheerful, especially because there are a lot of instances of a casual, apathetic or serious Marisa. I think emotionally, Marisa is insensitive. However, Marisa also cares in a normal fashion, which is why she's the most human and straightforward. Marisa has a bunch of quirky dialogue, but she also has a lot of straight man dialogue from the manga and a bunch of serious moments. I intend to balance all of these facets accordingly. Even so, considering her situation, she couldn't be in a very upbeat mood. I'm actually wondering if the second scene is not gloomy enough, but on the other hand, I feel like the lighthearted moments I did include aren't out-of-place. I mean, Marisa isn't dying or anything. Her arm just broke; I don't want to blow it out of proportion.

Still, the hardest character to write was Eirin, and I'd already known I would struggle the moment I knew she had to make an appearance. My original plan was avoiding her like the plague, making the second scene be no more than a paragraph of explaining Eirin arriving and Marisa's getting her arm fixed. However, I realized that would be a terrible and lazy idea, so I decided to have at least a small flashback to show the parts I absolutely had to write Eirin with. Unfortunately, none of it seemed enough so I ended up writing the entire scene, but I'm unsure if it needed more set-up than that. Well, maybe the scene with Reimu bringing her would have been slightly interesting, but only to develop on the slight foreshadowing I did already, which we don't actually need. Conversely, by introducing Eirin like that, it makes it a surprise since, if we'd gotten the scene with Reimu bringing Eirin, the following scene being Eirin in the shrine would have less of an impact. But maybe I'm just overthinking it... Anyway, I tried avoiding Eirin, but I couldn't so I had to read up on her again.

So, I don't know what the general fanon view of Eirin is, but as far as I concluded, Eirin isn't very cold. You'd expect somebody who's cold and condescending, but Eirin is more like pleasant and condescending. A lot of the things she says are in a strangely light-hearted or carefree fashion when she isn't being serious, and she can make a lot of strange remarks. Regardless, she is very intelligent, self-confident (to the point of being smug) and isn't very tolerant of other people's stupidity. I think I have a good enough grasp of who Eirin is, but I'm not sure if I did her justice. Eirin is actually not a bad person, but she doesn't tend to act on unnecessary things, and is very calculating. I'm hoping the portrayal conveys the kind of thought that goes through her mind. Cage in the Lunatic Runagate was one of my main references for Eirin's personality (though Imperishable Night was also one). I wasn't actually planning on Kasen appearing this soon, but it was so convenient that I had to take the chance.

Kasen is this mish-mash of humanity and inhumanity that works, so I find her interesting. Kasen is very compassionate on one hand, but very cold on the other hand. It's like her moral standards are trying to be human, but aren't quite there by nature. This is a masterful portrayal of her character considering the plot twist (everybody knows her identity but whatever) behind her, and it really makes you think about why she became this way. I also found it strange how Kasen and Eirin were more or less on the same page, since I wasn't expecting that at all. However, when you look into them, Eirin is also the kind of character that isn't quite up to human standards, but not a bad person anyway so this might be why? Though, Eirin's thought process definitely differs from Kasen, and I think Kasen is somewhat more down-to-earth, while Eirin is more dignified. As in, Kasen wants to lower herself and be closer to people, and Eirin leaves her distance (while not driving people away) and stays moderately high up.

Putting that aside, Yukari is one of those characters you'd think would be really difficult to write, but I have a lot of fun coming up with her dialogue and she's actually kind of easy to nail if you study her enough. You don't know the full extent of her character, but the same applies to every character in Touhou. Besides, if you look through Imperishable Night and Subterranean Animism, she won't seem as omnipotent to you as you'd initially thought. Most of the time, she doesn't seem to know what's going on either. Geniuses aren't omniscient, after all. Furthermore, Yukari's power to control boundaries is very OP, but it has its limitations. To be honest, whenever I try to think of ways in which Yukari could use her powers to do x or y, I get stumped. How would she have been able to find the intruder in the shrine, for example? What border can she manipulate to find a guy? The border of lost and found? Would making it disappear not simply muddle the two instead of leaving only one to begin with? Besides, in destroying or weakening this barrier, it would just make people easier to spot or easier not to spot. People cannot become omniscient by the boundary of losing and finding things. Is it the boundary of dudes with foreign powers and dudes with familiar powers? Basically, there isn't actually a lot of you can specifically do, if you think about it.

She can destroy the world, I suppose. She can break concepts and their logic, or create them. She can separate and mix things together. However, upon a closer look, there are plenty of things Yukari can't actually do with her super amazing boundary powers. I actually find these limitations in Yukari to be what makes her the most interesting because, in hindsight, all of her most badass actions were not pulled off through OP border powers, but by sheer cunning and intelligence. Yukari is a character who has legitimately acted primarily through her intellect and intelligence, even despite being one of the most powerful entities in Gensokyo. Yes, her boundary powers played some part in a few of these plans, but my point is that she isn't a character who relies on only her boundary powers. She is a character who happens to have these powers, and not a one-dimensional character who is just the badass boundary powers and playful smiles.

Ahem! Rambling aside, Yukari's great and stuff's set up. Yay...? There wasn't much Hunter x Hunter in here, but it'll arrive when the time comes. Hopefully it'll be the next chapter, but who knows? Look forward to that!


	3. Chapter 2

**First Words:**

* * *

Though this isn't noticeable now (hopefully!), I screwed up in editing the story and lost my final draft of Chapter 2, so I had to very quickly re-write it all over again while I had a first (or second) sitting there as a placeholder. This means the entire First Words section had been lost along with a lot of polish and even the chapter's title; needless to say I was, uh, distraught then. Still, I managed to get this more or less up to speed fast, and when it comes to what was originally in this section, I'm estimating I'd gotten something along the lines of 1 favorite and 2 followers to this story since the last chapter (forgive my poor Math skills), and I'm still super grateful for them! I also mentioned my _upload schedule_ in here, which is as succintly follows: I have a 7 chapter head start on you, and after I write the next chapter on this head start, I upload the next from the one published on the website. As such, for example, after I uploaded chapter 2, I had to finish chapter 10 to upload chapter 3. Hopefully this more or less clears it up!

With that in mind, enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Ejected to a Misleading Beginning**

* * *

The Sun could barely be seen when Reimu had decided to leave the shrine and make her way back to the man she had knocked out. Dark circles settled below her eyes as she slowly walked out of her room with a grimace, pondering on the current matters of Gensokyo. Though only to be expected, Reimu had been uncomfortable with the thought of soundly sleeping while somebody was unconscious nearby, even if he was an incapacitated human. Considering the man had simply been manipulated (though, conversely, possessed or permanently rid of his free will in some manner), had it truthfully been for the best to leave him unconscious and trapped under a barrier? "That Yukari better not have tricked me into doing something stupid..." After stepping outside, Reimu rubbed her eyes as if to adjust to the faint light and noted the cold temperature. Being currently too drowsy to bother returning for a warmer outfit, however, Reimu instead continued to walk for the original location of the barrier while grasping her weapon, the Purification Rod.

Against her expectations, the person that was standing near the young man, who remained unconscious, was not Yukari, but a differing Gensokyo Sage. Her stance confident, albeit imposing as she overlooked both the man and the barrier along with Reimu walking from the corner of her amber eyes, Okina Matara simply shifted her gaze Reimu's way and smirked without further movement. "Now that's certainly not the energy expected out of the shrine maiden meant to fix the current crisis. Were you nervous about this?" Then, Okina lightly pointed to the barrier containing the young man, as if conversely unfazed by the sight.

"Why are you here? Where did Yukari go?" Reimu plainly questioned as she approached Okina without hesitation, the barrier not even clearly in her line of sight in comparison to the goddess' ominous presence. Only when Reimu was finally at arms' length from her had Okina turned to Reimu in somewhat of a welcoming fashion, her confident smile unwavering.

"She entrusted me with this matter to deal with her own," Okina effortlessly responded as she glanced towards the horizon, as if that were the firection Yukari had disappeared to, "for I'm the most qualified to assist you from this point on." The moment her gaze was on Reimu again, her smirk widened, and she shrugged in a dramatic, almost condescending fashion. "It was simple logic."

"Huh..." Reimu vacantly stared at Okina, as if to scrutinize her intentions apart from noting on her needlessly theatrical stance in regards to the serious incident, but quickly found herself too sleepy to prioritize the endeavor. Ultimately, she bluntly uttered, "What are you two planning, anyway? I get that this guy's our only lead, but we can't even interrogate him at this point. How is he going to help us get to the culprit? Besides, wasn't he just being possessed?"

"... Perhaps he was," Okina said after half a moment's pause, which she took to process Reimu's lightly cold expression and traces of doubt, "but you can't guarantee that his cooperation was involuntary, either. In essence, we know as much about this incident as you do. However, considering the circumstances, wasn't this human threatening the balance of Gensokyo?" Okina's imposing features softened, deliberately so, as she placed a hand on Reimu's right shoulder. "As the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, you did well."

Reimu effortlessly removed Okina's hand, putting no thought into the action and into the fact that she was speaking to Okina, a goddess; Okina briefly noted that insolence, but dismissed it just as quickly for Reimu's usual demeanor. "I know that much," Reimu stated while glancing at the young man, feeling almost as though underestimated. Then, she crossed her arms and scowled Okina's way. "Still, if it turns out there was no good reason for this whole thing, and we let the chance to interrogate him slip by..."

Okina calmly shook her head in order to preemptively deny Reimu's hypothesis. "Fortunately for us, there was never a need for an interrogation to begin with," she explained, "In fact, leaving him unconscious like this is exactly what we want. It'll allow you to reach the true mastermind at once and guarantee your safe return." Reimu's eyebrows rose from reflexive skepticism as she immediately thought the plan was perhaps too good to be true. However, despite the visible signs of doubt, Okina remained entirely confident, smirking once again before having her hand flutter for the young man's general direction, urging Reimu to follow it with her gaze. "If you remove the barrier, you'll see it with your own eyes."

Reimu did not comply immediately. Instead, she stared sharply into Okina's as though to cut through her standoffish attitude before simply retorting, "And if I don't see it, I'll beat you and Yukari up." Then, Reimu walked for the barrier trapping the unconscious young man and squatted nearby.

"Quite the daring shrine maiden, you are," Okina wryly remarked, but was pleased to see Reimu quickly removing the barrier before her eyes. Similarly, a rectangular shape akin to a door appeared below the man's body, which, in its open state, swiftly swallowed the it into the Land of the Rear Door. "Well, follow me. I doubt the body could be in the mastermind's reach now that it's been moved to my abode, but it would be prudent to hurry."

"Your abode?" While Okina had heard Reimu's inquiry, she chose to conjure a door below herself and disappear, leaving Reimu alone. "Hey, wait!" Reimu ran for the door and jumped inside, uncaring of what could be facing her through it. Truthfully, she knew the ominous area that had been expecting her, but as she laid eyes on the uncountable doors floating upon the dark location, Reimu's mood only soured.

Reimu surveyed every direction until she spotted Okina, who was smirking from below her. As Reimu floated downwards in order to reach closer to her, Okina said, "The plan is simple. Surely you remember the trap I'd laid out for you in our first match; the method will be almost identical." Okina shifted her gaze to the unconscious body of the young man, which lay floating a few meters away from her. "I will set a door on this man..." As she spoke, a door similar to the others Okina had previously summoned, light in color and hardly noticeable, surged on the back of the man before she faced Reimu again. "And set another on you. Your door, however, will be a door used to gather the foreign power this man, among others, is currently holding. Specifically, the power of the mastermind. In other words..."

"You're going to eject me into the mastermind's location...?" Reimu questioned in only slight awe.

"Precisely." The moment Okina had finished uttering that word, two figures flew from behind her towards the young man's body. While normally prone to speaking out, Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida were silent before their master, as Okina had yet to finish speaking. "I will increase the powers of the mastermind to the point you could collect them yourself through the door I place on your back." Unbeknownst to Reimu, it was when Okina had finished that sentence that she had conjured a door on her back; Mai and Satono's mischievous smiles widened at that fact. "Then, I will take it from you, forcing you to return whence the power originally came."

Reimu pensively, though casually hummed before awkwardly frowning. "This sure is a crafty way to beat up the boss this time around," she commented, though she was inwardly finding herself quickly accepting the idea. The true problem was not in the execution of the plan, but in other doubts Reimu possessed.

Picking up on them, Okina effortlessly stated, "The incident could prolong itself for too long otherwise; it's firmly planted its roots already. Besides, you've been told of the mastermind's ability to diminish their presence, haven't you? This is ultimately the most efficient way to reach the mastermind and defeat them." Okina's expression assumed a dignified sense of urgency as she frowned down at Reimu, whose casual expression contrasted with hers considerably. "Though, I'll inform you of this: once you leave through this method, the door on your back will disappear so that you don't haphazardly collect more of a power you can't use to begin with mid-duel. After you take down the mastermind, you'll likely have to find your own way out of their location and return by yourself. If you take longer than predicted, however, I'll see to it I return you through other means."

"So what?" Reimu immediately shot back without much thought, and proceeded to smile when she did consider the implications of Okina's explanation. "If this is just about finding an exit, there's nothing to worry about." She brandished her weapon, signalling the fact that she was prepared and armed for the situation, and pointed the Purification Rod Okina's way. "Bring it on! I'll solve the incident just like I solved yours!"

Okina wholeheartedly chuckled in light of Reimu's easygoing, albeit prideful stance before exclaiming, "So be it, then! I expect no less from the Hakurei Shrine Maiden!" In a swift motion, Okina turned to Mai and Satono and gestured towards the unconcious young man. "You two! Dance behind that man's back to your heart's content! Make sure his power is brought to maximum capacity!"

Mai and Satono firmly nodded. "Yes, Master!" they shouted at the same time in cheery voices as they rushed for the man's body. Then, Okina faced Reimu again.

"In the meantime, you can rest here," Okina calmly offered with a small smile and stretched her arms as if to symbolize her freedom to wander the vast area. "I'd suggest somewhere more accommodating, but I'd rather see you leave with my own eyes than risk interrupting anything you do outside of the Land of the Rear Door."

Imagining herself falling through a mysterious hole without any preemptive warning, Reimu grimaced and bitterly remarked, "It _would_ be troublesome if I suddenly got sent to the culprit while asleep, I suppose..." Despite that, Okina noted, Reimu's clear gaze indicated only an underlying motivation to put an end to the incident, a conviction that preceded her desire for sleep.

"Woah...!" At the awed exclamation from a dancing Mai, who nonetheless seemed to be enjoying herself, Reimu and Okina shifted their attention to the young man's body. While Okina coldly regarded the foreign light embedded in the man's life force, Reimu found herself somewhat curious as to how it came to be, though her gaze was equally as serious. Reimu assumed a guarded stance, as if awaiting an attack, and locked eyes with the white energy seeping from the door on the man's back.

A soft, white aura of light surged as though water vapor from a kettle, but its intensity managed to somehow weigh Reimu down ever so slightly with an unknown pressure as it spread through the area. Mai and Satono's movements had slowed down as well from the effects of the leaking power, while only Okina appeared entirely unaffected. Her eyes were fixated on the man, but her primary thoughts were centered on the strange energy that had appeared. Was it the power of the mastermind, fused with the normal life force of the human villager? She scrutinized the aura, reaching for a plausible answer.

Reimu's eyes widened in absolute shock, surprising even Okina, who had vaguely seen Reimu flinch for reasons unknown. "Reimu? What's wrong?"

Reimu's back was slightly bent forward, as if Reimu were unable to straighten herself under the weight of an intangible mass. She scowled as she broke into a cold sweat, anger mixing in with pure confusion. "Wh-what the heck is this energy...?" Reimu muttered in a strained voice, "It's like it's... Trying to draw something out from me..."

While Reimu remained clueless as to what the mysterious power's effects were on her, Okina's bewildered gaze caught sight of a peculiar phenomenon which struck her silent. The unknown aura had surrounded Reimu's body unbeknownst to Reimu herself, and it resonated with Reimu's pre-existing spiritual power. The two did not reject each other, as far as Okina could see: in fact, the foreign energy had almost condensed Reimu's power; or attempted to, at the very least. "Just send me to the bad guy already...!" Reimu exclaimed in frustration, hoping to break Okina's concentration.

Hit with a sudden realization, Okina immediately looked towards Mai and Satono. "Stop your dance at once! Reimu is in danger!" she assertively demanded before quickly directing her attention towards Reimu, her expression indicating only a fraction of Okina's concerns. "Now, listen to me. When you find yourself before the mastermind, run. There is a chance part of your body may be under their grasp unless the effect subsides."

Reimu was only able to faintly look up to Okina's face, and verify that her words were nothing if not genuine. Confused, she uttered, "What...?"

"Luckily, the process this is making you go through will be incomplete, so they won't truly be able to control you," Okina ominously added before locking eyes with Reimu, as if hoping to fully garner her attention. "Hakurei Shrine Maiden or not, don't do anything too reckless; it could cost you your freedom!" However, despite the commanding tone behind the exceedingly grave statements, Reimu was fazed only by the migraine and pressure she was currently feeling, her current main concern.

"Just eject me from here already," Reimu countered with just as much intensity placed into her voice, even if speaking was exerting more effort from her than normal. "I'll beat up the mastermind for sure after this, so... Just do it!"

... Okina's frown deepened at what she perceived to be a complete lack of a sense of danger. Coldly, Okina uttered, "Don't tell me I didn't warn you, then." She stretched her right arm out to Reimu's direction and stared into Reimu's eyes. "This is farewell for now!" In a flash, the unknown energy started coursing towards Okina and the door behind Reimu compelling her departure from the Land of the Rear Door. Before her eyes, yet again, she saw Reimu unaware of the situation, unable to process it as she sunk into the door behind her.

By the time the mysterious power scattered, set free by Okina, the door and Reimu were no longer present.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Rapidly shifting remembrances blurred, and with nothing to explain her current situation, Reimu's eyes had widened at the vast landscape her falling body had been steadily approaching. Okina had popped to mind; something about a trap. She supposedly knew the circumstances that had led to the strong wind enveloping her in the middle of an entirely blue early morning sky, somehow different from the one she had seen in Gensokyo. At the very least, albeit Reimu was unconfident of her drowsy state when it came to recalling events, she was certain she was to solve an incident. An incident regarding a mysterious power threatening the balance of Gensokyo by empowering the humans' position. To Reimu, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, such an act was sorely unforgivable.

However, where had been her promised enemy? A mound of tall buildings awaited Reimu at the unfamiliar ground, stretching out as far as her eyes could possibly take in. Slick and bright, though dull in color, Reimu could only equate the scenery to a location she had briefly visited in her life: the Outside World. Though the darkness of the night sky was lacking in the location, Reimu identified a similar type of settlement and was led to believe she had arrived at the Outside World.

Reimu ceased to fall near the tallest building in the area, a tower of extraordinary height beyond compare despite the already abnormal height in the normal settlements that Reimu had no familiarity with. Reimu was floating next to the higher floors, overlooking the city with a grimace. While she assumed her location was the Outside World, Reimu conversely noted a different presence emanating from the general surroundings. Most of all, however, after looking in every direction, Reimu could not sense the Great Hakurei Barrier. As such, Reimu had concluded that she was in a part of the Outside World far from Gensokyo. Additionally, she possessed no means to return to Gensokyo; Reimu verified as such by touching her back, devoid of Okina's door.

Even so, surprisingly enough, Reimu's main problem lay elsewhere. Unlike the last incident where she had been transported to the Outside World, there was no one awaiting her in the sky. No culprit in plain sight; Reimu directed her gaze to the side. Windows lined up the floors she had been floating next to, but while the tower seemed suspicious to Reimu, she felt inclined to think the mastermind was not in a building so obvious, especially considering they were likely sneaky and well-hidden enough for even Yukari and Okina not to be able to find them despite having ready access to the Outside World. Something about the current circumstances sat wrongly with Reimu, though she could not place exactly why that was the case. Naturally, the fact that the mastermind was not right in front of her and assuming a fighting stance was the worst part of the situation, but her own whereabouts raised more questions than answers.

Slowly but surely, she had started to remember certain details of her conversation with Okina. The plan involving Reimu's transportation explicitly involved Reimu being moved to the precise location of the mastermind by using the mastermind's own energy; it would stand to reason to assume that Reimu would have to appear at the closest possible distance to the mastermind themself. However, Reimu noted as she looked above her, she had fallen from the sky in a seemingly random part of the Outside World, with no person flying in sight beyond herself. When she shifted her gaze downwards, she spotted various walking figures on the ground abounding the streets, none of which she could ascertain to be the mastermind (though she quickly assumed they were all human).

Reimu had a hard time believing there was no meaning to the location she had been moved to. The door had likely led her there for a reason, as much as Reimu could not see it yet. Regardless, she scowled. "Don't tell me Okina set her trap wrong or something like that..." _Now I could be even farther from the mastermind than I was before,_ Reimu thought, _How am I going to search for them in a place this big?_ The fact that she was in the Outside World without any means to return to Gensokyo only worsened the situation. Essentially, Reimu was starting to realize the gravity of the turn of events that had befallen her.

Depending on how fast Okina would decide to retrieve her, Reimu was stuck in an unknown location without any guarantee that the mastermind was nearby. Until then, she had no choice but to stay in the Outside World. The implications weighed down on her as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden; at the same time, they steeled her resolve to incomparable levels. No matter the cost, she would not let Gensokyo be endangered. Reimu began to lower herself to the ground, but while distancing herself from the tower and looking out for a place lacking in people who could spot her.

By then, Reimu had already accepted her current reality. She had forsaken thoughts pertaining how to return to Gensokyo, or any pending concern over it. Instead, she was setting her main priorities for the time being as nothing other than finding the mastermind, defeating them and solving the incident. The prospect brought a clear, optimistic smile to Reimu's face as she overlooked what she perceived to be the Outside World. A hint of confidence glimmered through the reflection of her gaze, indicating only a fraction of her certainty regarding her own victory against the mastermind. It was time for action, and Reimu could not afford to needlessly dawdle.

In narrowing down the mastermind, Reimu had decided to gather information about the mysterious power that had coursed through her own body. If its origins lay in the Outside World and in this area in particular, she assumed at least rumors would spread in the same way the Human Village had spoken of it. If not, perhaps it was a widely known phenomenon to begin with, which would be even more convenient to Reimu's search. Regardless, as she landed on the ground, noting the unfamiliar, hard material used to pave the darkened alley she had chosen, Reimu had decided her course of action and was raring to proceed.

The walls surrounding the alleyway were old and unseemly, with drawings of letters Reimu could not recognize in varying colors, among other paintings of differing natures. Further into the path Reimu had moved for, hints of dirt covered specific parts of the walls, and the ground was littered with papers, rocks, and substances Reimu was unable to discern. "I suppose nobody would have the patience to clean cities this big," Reimu remarked in a carefree fashion. "But still, this could definitely use a more welcoming appearance. Who would want to live here?" With the freakishly tall tower in the far horizon bright and immaculate, a contrast was formed between Reimu's location and the sky above, as though the darkness resided among the streets Reimu was traversing. She had put considerable distance between herself and the tower, since she did not want to mingle with so many people just yet.

In fact, Reimu had some awareness of the nature of the area she had chosen. Luckily, Reimu had left the Hakurei Shrine well-armed, and she was already bracing herself for danger. Though there was no such specific place in the Human Village, Reimu needed only to lightly survey the glum streets to see that she was in what others would possibly call 'a bad neighborhood'. It had not been first-hand experience leading her to think so, but sheer intuition; a tense air flowing along the cold wind. Despite the dull greys of the buildings, all of which were tall and imposing in Reimu's eyes, it was equally clear to her that they were not supposed to be the most valuable. _So many people could fit into these; it just seems like a waste to me._

So far, no one had entered Reimu's line of sight. The streets were seemingly empty, and Reimu had not found the entrance to many of the buildings she had been observing. She had rightfully picked that sort of back alley precisely because she did not wish to be noticed, but now that she had safely landed, Reimu's gaze was entirely focused on finding even if one person in the area. The narrow pathways were somewhat stifling, and Reimu momentarily considered taking flight again and changing locations so the probability of seeing someone would increase.

As she was faced with a fork in the path and pondered on whether to head left of right, the emergence of a foot from the right had Reimu step back and tense while reaching out for a weapon. Two rugged men had stepped before Reimu, though only one of them had noticed her from the corner of his eye. "Oh?" His hand ran through his dark beard as he tapped his friend's shoulder with his other hand in order to draw his attention. "Look what we have here..."

Although initially confused, if not irritated at having his train of thought interrupted, the other man, tanned and more muscular, smirked at the immediate sight of Reimu, who was grimacing their way. "You ain't lookin' too good there, missy," he teasingly remarked. "Somethin' wrong?"

"Even if there was, that's none of your business," Reimu sharply countered, though, as she looked over the two men, she relaxed from her previous guarded stance. The two were untrustworthy at first glance, but Reimu was sure she could handle them to the point where she felt she had exaggerated out of the tension in the air. "But now that you bothered to talk to me, I suppose I could have you answer a few questions."

The tanned man amusedly snorted, surprised by her disrespectfully casual speech. "Questions? You a detective or somethin'?"

"I don't need to be something like that just to ask questions," Reimu said before crossing her arms. "Anyway, do you know something about a white aura? Have you been hearing any rumors about some weird power?"

"Huh?" the bearded man uttered in sheer confusion. The tanned man, meanwhile, had been suppressing laughter while covering his mouth the moment he'd even heard the second question. "An 'aura'?"

"By the looks of it, you don't know a thing," Reimu bitterly muttered, and her gaze lingered on the tanned man as proof of her conclusion. Despite that, she reasoned that perhaps, the strange power could be manifesting without people knowing it was there to begin with, or that her questions were vague, though she could not fix that problem: her knowledge on the mysterious power was greatly lacking, rendering her unable to specify its true nature.

She had hoped the people of the city were more knowledgeable, but Reimu started weighing the probability of that not being the case in accordance to the reactions she was receiving. "Oh, missy, you're a riot!" the tanned man exclaimed as he attempt to calm himself in the middle of laughing, but was finding himself greatly unsuccessful in the task the more he continued to think through Reimu's seemingly serious inquiries.

"I'm sorry to say we don't know all that much about the supernatural, miss," the bearded man said while smirking, unable to fake a resigned or saddened voice under his feelings of great amusement, even if he was not laughing himself. "But we're definitely interested. How about you give us a thorough explanation over at our place? If you think about it, our meeting was probably no coincidence..." The tanned man snickered in the background of the bearded man's response and he shot his partner a glance, but ultimately shrugged, knowing Reimu would have noticed. "Considering how rare it is to find a girl alone in this part of the neighborhood. I'm sure it was all meant to be. You believe in Fate, don't you?"

Unfazed, Reimu dismissively waved her hand. "I don't have time for any of that right now," she asserted. "Can you tell me if you know anyone who's strong? Is there any group of well-known people who are skilled at fighting? Anything at all? You better give me an honest answer." Reimu tapped her foot impatiently as she expectantly regarded the two men, though her expression indicated a clear neutrality that seemed amost arrogant in the men's eyes.

The two men relinquished their amusement and frowned in the momentary silence caused by their sudden rising tension. "Hey, missy," the tanned man lowly interjected. "You ever been called reckless before? 'Cause I don't think you know where you wound up in."

"Well, putting the reckless part aside..." Reimu momentarily grimaced, but her gaze was far from sharp, and she even blinked absent-mindedly as she genuinely considered the man's words. "You're right about that," she lightly responded as she glanced through her surroundings, "I have no idea where I am as of now. Is this still Japan?"

The two men glanced each other's way with considerable awe. While the tanned man was scowling, his fists trembling from sheer irritation, the bearded man's gaze was blank and his expression sour with doubt and concern. When both faced Reimu again, who awaited their responses in an insultingly distracted fashion (almost as if the area were not at all dangerous), the tanned man could not help but loudly sigh in an attempt to subside his violent urges. "Let's just scram," he said, resigned. "I ain't feelin' it anymore. Not with a missy this crazy." As he gestured for his friend to follow him, he turned around and began to walk away from Reimu's line of sight.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Reimu angrily shouted. Seeing the bearded man wordlessly follow his friend, Reimu's fury only intensified as she started to think she was being heavily misunderstood and underestimated for virtually no reason, in her perspective. "I'm not done with you yet, you know? You haven't answered my questions!" She stepped forward to follow the men, only to stop in her tracks when she saw the two had stopped as well.

They did not turn around to face her as a way to ease their frustration, but they spoke regardless, if only out of pity: "Strong people, was it? If it's strong folk you're looking for, no better place than that tower," the bearded man bitterly responded in a low voice as he glanced to the side, where the tallest building of th city was visible from the horizon. "You might be a loon, but you're not blind. There's no way you can miss it."

"That suspicious tower, huh..." Reimu muttered. Her gaze had naturally led her to the protruding building seen even from the narrow path, tall and pristine.

Meanwhile, the tanned man huffed. "You're damn lucky you only found us," he harshly uttered, "Warnin' a missy like you's probably a waste, but don't go thinkin' you'll find people as kind as us 'round these parts. If you get into trouble with any of 'em, you better assume nobody will go help you." Then, he started walking again, heading for the left in a faster pace than before. "Hope we don't see you again, missy!" The bearded man silently followed behind his moody partner, who afforded to even lazily wave at her, but never looked in her direction as he left.

"That's my line!" Reimu loudly retorted, as if to make sure they would hear that. "But thanks, anyway!" Knowing they would no longer invest their time on her in any capacity, Reimu faced the right, where the two had come from. At the very least, Reimu could assume the right was not a dead-end, leading her to tread in that direction without hesitation. Furthermore, using the tower's position as reference, Reimu assumed heading to the right would get her closer to her destination. "I don't know if I can find the mastermind there, but it does seem like I could know something from that place..."

With that, Reimu continued onwards, with the grand tower as her goal.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Covered by tall, abundant bamboo, Eientei subtly stood among the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, though youkai rabbits would come and go from the premises occasionally. The Japanese-styled mansion was dimly-lit and unassuming, but that itself contributed to its elegance, and their residents held a considerable amount of pride for the building. Inside Eientei, near the exit stood an expectant Eirin staring at the doorway. She had thought back to Marisa's injuries, caused by a mysterious attacker. While Marisa had claimed the attacker was human, Eirin had her eyes set on a different angle regarding the event.

Eirin recomposed her elegant stance when the front doors had opened and revealed a troubled-looking moon rabbit, Reisen Udongein Inaba, entering the building. Upon facing Eirin, however, Reisen tensed and her long ears twitched ever so slightly from the sudden movement of her body to assume a somewhat stern position. Eirin locked eyes with Reisen, her expression an ominous, albeit thin frown. "Have you found anything else?" she asked in a careful manner.

"The interference seems to be ongoing," Reisen professionally stated, "but it's growing in intensity; it's honestly painful to speak to the other rabbits at this point. Additionally, the rabbits on the Moon are as confused as we are because there supposedly is no conflict in the Lunar Capital to speak of." Reisen scratched her head while pondering further on the matter, showing more signs of her true feelings on the situation, even if only briefly. In an attempt to reach for more information to report to her master from her own mind, she let seconds of silence loom in the air, which Eirin patiently awaited further input from Reisen, but her lacking results had her grimace. "Beyond that, I'm afraid I couldn't get anything else from the rabbits on the matter. I'm just hoping the People of the Moon don't start suspecting us of this..."

"If the problem is limited to the moon rabbits, it will have little effect on us," Eirin calmly reassured, "so we can relax on that end." Then, she narrowed her eyes as she cast her gaze to the floor to further concentrate on her own thoughts on the situation, leaving Reisen to feel slightly ignored (though she would never admit to it). "Our main concern is the threat this is posing to our information network. The moon rabbits may not always share valuable information for us, but it has served us well so far; risking its loss is _not_ an option right now. Besides, if it starts affecting you even when you're not accessing it, Eientei will lose one of its main workers."

Reisen awkwardly nodded in agreement, uncertain of whether to see Eirin's words as a show of concern for her wellbeing or not. Eirin herself had likely intended for the true meaning not to be clear, and the prospect somewhat displeased Reisen. "I suppose so, but we have no solid leads," she responded. "How do you think we can solve this problem, Master?"

 **. . .**

"Well..." Seemingly without any pertinent reason from Reisen's perspective, Eirin confidently smiled before lifting her head to face Reisen once more. "All things considered, the solution might be simpler than you think," she said. "You remember the information we gathered from Marisa while the hermit wasn't looking, don't you? That wasn't a meaningless move." Reisen slowly nodded once more, though she remained somewhat confused as to what exactly Eirin wished to tell her; as such, she remained silent, hoping for tangible orders afterwards. "According to her, the foreign energy weighs down on its targets, pressuring them physically and mentally. Furthermore, the rumors regarding this power have apparently started at around the same time as the interference. If we also consider the presence of other moon rabbits besides you, we could theorize that these rabbits are coming into contact with this unknown energy and causing the interference." Eirin lowly and elegantly chuckled in preemptive glory, much to Reisen's dry confusion as she wondered if it was so possible to connect the two phenomena mentioned without further certainty, though she was at least used to seeing her master so confident in her own judgment. "As expected, I was right to think there could be a link between the two events. We've finally made some progress with our predicament."

"Then, should I go look for moon rabbits that didn't return to the Lunar Capital now that we've confirmed the Moon's stance on the incident?" Reisen plainly asked, unable to share in Eirin's confidence and amusement in face of the incident at hand. In fact, while the theory was sound, Reisen still saw it as just that: a theory. Regardless, trusting her master's intellectual prowess, she had put forth no complaints.

"Look for both the rabbits and people with that strange energy," Eirin ordered, "Your objective is to collect leads from either of them on the culprit behind this incident." Eirin glanced towards a door to one of the man hallways of the residence, leading to Reisen's quarters. "With that in mind, you should start preparing to head out. If you discover anything, you must report it to me at once before proceeding. Understood? Don't disappoint me, now."

Reisen straightened herself before rapidly nodding. "Yes, Master! I'll make sure I find the moon rabbits and settle this issue once and for all!" she exclaimed, bowed and filed out of the entrance at a quick pace, having not expected Eirin to tell her anything else. Eirin stared at her as she left, inwardly commenting on her unreliably uptight attitude, even if she was greatly familiar with it by now. Her smile had softened, and gentle eyes caught sight of Reisen's back before she had been too far away. While she had not openly admitted to it, Eirin had high expectations out of Reisen. Though she had little reason to be so certain, Eirin almost knew that Reisen would return with significant results.

Eirin looked forward to that time, and to cleanly settle what she had perceived to be a minor incident.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Reimu jumped to the side before kicking the last of the group from behind. He was brought to his knees from the sheer force, and Reimu proceeded to give him no time to recover. She pressed a paper charm onto the slender man's back, and ran from the area without affording the time to watch the charm dispatch a charge of spiritual power able to paralyze even youkai for a limited amount of time. The other men in the group of four, all of them burglars, had been lightly knocked out, so Reimu had known their state of unconsciousness would not prolong itself for long. Seeing in herself no time to waste on needlessly battling with people unrelated to her duties or the incident she had to solve, Reimu had been on the run for most of her path towards a more populated part of the city. "When those two told me I was lucky before, they definitely weren't exaggerating..." Reimu begrudgingly remarked as she surveyed the street for a path correlating with the direction of the tower visible from afar.

People were still scarce and, adding to her frustration, Reimu had the sinking feeling that she was walking in circles. She had seen herself no closer from the tower than she had been previously, and the spike in conflict had only served to worsen her situation. As much as she continued to run, Reimu was seeing no perceivable end to the neighborhood she had chosen to land on. She considered floating away and reaching the tower, but she had landed so as to not stand out while flying to begin with. Frustrated, Reimu angrily groaned as she took a left, in a direction opposing the tower's. At this point, Reimu was starting to assume that simply following the tower through the streets was not effective in making her specifically reaching it, and she had been getting increasingly fed up with dead-ends.

The continuous running had started to take a toll on an originally drowsy Reimu, who was panting as she almost aimlessly treaded the streets. Unable to notice the tall figure in time, Reimu had squarely bumped into someone. The collision caused her to lose some of her balance, but she had avoided falling to the ground and instead reflexively looked up at the man, who slyly smiled her way; she had unfortunately come to quickly discern said suspicious expressions from first-hand experience. "Well, hello there, miss **—** "

... Reimu broke into another run. **"Not interested!"**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Hey, it's the first humorous note this story has ended on! I mean, if it qualifies as humorous for you... Anyway, because Touhou 16 is really new and the only source depicting Okina is the game itself, I had a bunch of questions pertaining her ability, which I basically had to carefully read up on the game on or conclude by myself so I could use it to my advantage. I imagine you were surprised at Okina's appearance since she is such a recent character, but I honestly found that she was absolutely necessary. It was either using Okina, or having Yukari come up with an even more complicated scheme for Reimu to go dimension-hopping. In a way, this story was only able to work because of Okina's existence. I think Okina's been having a rough time in the fandom because of her appearance (I also thought 'Ain't that Junko?' when I saw her, admittedly enough) and ability, but I am super glad that she's a thing. Personally, I think her ability is better and more convenient than Yukari's, and Okina's personality is more standoffish and confident, so it's fun to write. I still like Yukari better because Yukari's done too much awesome stuff for Okina to compare right now, but I'd say Okina is a pretty solid addition to the cast.

After all, Okina's ability isn't just gaps 2.0: Okina deals with the energy of all things because of her ability and has some control over these as a result. Furthermore, she has a backdoor for every location in her own place and can set a backdoor anywhere outside of it to lead to said own place. While Yukari can set a gap within any place she knows and within any border she sees, allowing her to travel anywhere with little restriction, Yukari cannot gap herself to a place whose border she doesn't know of, for example. At least, I'd sure ask myself how she could make a gap into the world of Hunter x Hunter without having even known of its existence. Yukari's gaps are reliant on boundaries, period. Meanwhile, Okina's backdoors, I theorize, are reliant on the life force of places, and I think all backdoors outside of the Land of the Rear Door connect to the Land of the Rear Door, making them literally backdoors. Well, these are kind of my assumptions after hours of thought on the powers of both, but I reckon we shouldn't underestimate Okina.

Yukari's more fun to write because of her more subtle dialogue that I always try to put more meaning than superficially discernable, but Okina is also nice. Okina and Yukari are very different in terms of personality. If I had to compare Okina to something, it'd be a mix between Kanako and Miko. I found myself translating Okina's speech in an elaborate way, but did my best to retain a unique character voice by adding words that would make her seem kind of old. In her game dialogue, she talked in this imposing manner and her speech was all god-like and old-ish only to switch to a more feminine speech after losing the match in the Extra Stage. Though, even then, she had that sort of 'ancient god' feel, so I worked to preserve that in writing her dialogue. I'm seriously hoping ZUN doesn't suddenly change her personality in a later game, but considering his track record in doing so, I should prepare for said tragedy ;_; I think Okina is very prideful and confident, to the point of over-confidence. She knows she's powerful, and sees herself as worthy of people's acknowledgment as such; very god-like. The point of her incident was just to stand out and make her presence known to the sages, and I think that says a lot about her as a character. She ends up taking a liking to Reimu at the end of the extra stage (a lot of characters take a liking to Reimu to be honest), and she also cares about Gensokyo's safety, so I thought it made sense that she would involve herself in this, especially if her method was the only sure-fire way to get to the mastermind. Another thing I noted as I wrote her was that she was pretty overbearing. It shows in the game dialogue, too, to an extent, but it surprised me since it came out more or less naturally. In general, Okina has a very imposing, arrogant feel to her; she's like THE god. Then there's Yukari, who's THE youkai, so she instead has this untrustworthy, ominous feel to her. It's an interesting contrast. I'm really hoping I nailed Okina, though, I spent a lot of time studying her.

Possibly the saddest part about the entire chapter was the fact that I couldn't include anything with Mai and Satono despite their presence in the scene. I mean, they said, like, two things...? But I hardly gave them a chance to shine. They don't seem like they'd be very easy to write, but I imagine the payoff for succeeding would be entertaining. What sucks is that I couldn't find any space for them to say anything, especially considering their relationship with Okina. The moral implications behind Mai and Satono are honestly kind of shocking, even if Ran is also a bit like that. If they're pretty much Okina's puppets (though they retain their original personalities and are probably allowed some freedom), I felt like it would make no sense that they'd talk over her or that Okina herself would want them to talk for her; Okina is probably the type that likes talking, anyway. I talk about Touhou's moral implications, but judging by the implications in the start of this chapter, I honestly have no right to say anything ^^'

I really love Reimu's gung-ho attitude about incident-solving. She is very dedicated to her duties, so her priorities will always be in them. As I wrote Reimu, I thought it would make sense that she would just jump right into it without caring for the dangers, as she canonically has no sense of danger and a hardened drive to beat up the bad guys. Okina ended up having mixed feelings about that, but that feels rather representative of Reimu's character, in the sense that she can be seen in very different ways depending on how she's acting. Everybody seems to have a differing perspective of Reimu upon meeting her, and Reimu's varying facets in relation to her situations certainly don't help. Either way, I didn't see Reimu freaking out over her circumstances or about not seeing a way back into Gensokyo. I think Reimu's not the type to mope in general. She processes the situation, gets pissed, and moves forward. If you knock her down, she gets back up again quickly. As such, it fit her more that she saw the situation and its implications, but put them aside for beating up the mastermind and solving the incident one step at the time. No matter the situation, Reimu follows through that, in my view. Marisa, on the other hand, would freak out for sure. Sometimes I almost make Reimu say things Marisa would say, so I remind myself of these sorts of differences to keep their personalities in mind.

I had a whole bunch of different plans for how the scene would pan out, but I'm honestly happy with the results of this one. At first, I was going to have Reimu beat up thieves and run into this nicer dude, then I was going to have the people she first meets be nicer dudes despite their appearance. Other plans involved having a temporary recurring OC for convenience's sake, but I realized that would be a horrible idea because the OC would end up having no use for the rest of the story. I'm not about to create an original recurring character that will stop being recurring and have no meaning; it would be the ultimate waste. Believe it or not, I fleshed out tanned guy and bearded guy's personalities a bit as I wrote them. Tanned guy's extroverted and outgoing, but also easy to anger and provoke; he's impatient and judgmental, but also reliable and down-to-earth. Bearded guy's more subdued and deliberate in his words, being quite cunning and calculating; he's also pessimistic and reserved. Both are very sleazy, and they live together to make ends meet (they were orphans and... whatever, they're side characters). They were interested in Reimu, but she was too weird for their tastes, so they let her off. They're not actually prone to violence (though tanned man's aggressive), and they're pretty okay as people, so nothing really happened conflict-wise. Which was their luck, since they'd get their asses kicked otherwise.

I have to admit I didn't think there would come a time when I'd have to think long and hard about how Reimu Hakurei would react to two dudes hitting on her, but I really like how it turned out. I felt like it really fit that she just waved that off like it didn't matter and instead insisted on her own concerns. If she weren't solving an incident and intent on gathering information, the reaction would have differed (she'd have just rejected them or brushed it off, really), but it was great how she handled it, in my opinion. It was all easygoing and apathetic. Tanned guy more or less lost his shit when Reimu said she had no idea where she was at XD Whatever the case, as I'd expected, I had the most difficulty with the second to last scene, the short part focusing on Reisen and Eirin.

Eirin shone a bit more in here than in the last scene, but I still get very anxious writing her. In my view, she's probably mellowed down throughout the years living in Gensokyo, though she's still the same personality-wise. Kaguya comments on it too in Cage in Lunatic Runagate, but I especially think that Yukari completely destroying her in Silent Sinner in Blue also affected that, even if later appearances don't note this explicitly (there haven't been many opportunities to do so in the first place). Eirin's a very reasonable person, even kind, though she's conceited; I wanted to make both sides show. I found it amusing how smug she was when she found out about Clownpiece and Hecatia along with the fact that she'd kicked their asses unknowingly through her involvement with the incident (this was in Visionary Fairies in Shrine), hahaha. Meanwhile, Reisen is the pinnacle of a sane character; the ultimate stick in the mud. Marisa is pretty human, but she's still a human who's on the quirky side. Reisen, on the other hand, has the trait of being ironically normal. She's like the middle ground of all these characteristics, and it strangely works. The whole point of Reisen is the contrast between her as a moon rabbit who can turn people insane and her really balanced personality.

Still, I didn't have much of an easy time. I don't know why, but Imperishable Night characters are difficult to write for me. I think I didn't do too bad, but I'm nervous anyway. Another layer was added to the incident, but we'll just have to see what's going on in later chapters, huh? The final part of the chapter was very amusing to me; nothing else to add on that end. Look forward to the next chapter, hopefully!


	4. Chapter 3

**First Words:**

* * *

 **somemadao - I've been reading about people's takes on the sages' different functions a lot, and yours is also interesting! Particularly the way you see Okina's power; do you mean that Okina's like the Gensokyo administrator, which is why she can do things like mess around with life force and energy? And Yukari, rather than being able to manipulate this flow like Okina does, she instead has the power to bypass it, apply a few changes or tear through it, something like that? Because that makes a lot of sense to me. Conversely, I'm not very sure about Kasen. Well, I like the hypothesis regarding that she might have something to do with security, but I'm pretty sure Okina's profile stated that Okina is the one who takes care of the problems nobody can see before they publicly manifest, so I think Kasen's angle is or was more straightforward if it was related to security. Regardless, it's food for thought to me. Thank you very much for reviewing!**

Since the last chapter, this story got 3 followers and 1 favorite, all of which have my gratitude! Really, these first chapters are shorter and serve more to establish things than anything, so it's truthfully awesome to see it's caught some interest regardless! I mean, I've been trying to make the chapters interesting, but you get the idea. Anyway, as a preemptive warning which I removed from the Author's Notes because I thought it was important enough to be more noticed here, there _will_ be OCs involved with the plotline. However, their presence will solely be there out of necessity just as you've been seeing so far, since I want the world to seem as expansive as it is and don't want to force canon characters to be OOC to fit my plot needs. Hopefully I can have your understanding on this.

Whatever the case, enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Those Worthy of the Celestial Tower**

* * *

"Reimu sure isn't pulling any punches this time around," Marisa remarked as she gazed at an entirely open Hakurei Shrine, tilting her head to the side so as to confirm that Reimu was not in her line of sight through the gap provided by an open door. "She even forgot to lock her door." She then quickly surveyed the shrine's exterior, almost as if accouting for the possibility that Reimu would be hiding near the premises, but the only inidividual she could spot was Kasen, who had been following Marisa since the early morning she had awoken her at in order to check on her wellbeing. _I don't need anybody watchin' over me, though,_ Marisa bitterly thought with narrowed eyes cast on Kasen. _I hope she'll give it up by tomorrow 'cause if she doesn't I'll_ really _get no sleep..._

"I would have commended her dedication to her duties right about now, but she could have at least been more careful with maintaining the shrine." Kasen frowned, troubled with her surroundings instead of Marisa. She had failed to notice Marisa's subtle resentment due to that, and instead crossed her arms before directing her gaze to a bamboo broom leaning on a tree near the shrine, likely left abandoned by its owner. "The door being unlocked is already bad enough, but there are still cherry blossom petals everywhere. Couldn't she have finished sweeping them before heading out?" Kasen sighed almost in resignation for Reimu's apparent carelessness. "It's not like Gensokyo will collapse in a day..."

"I thought I'd catch her leaving to go solve the incident right around this time, but she really must've been in a hurry," Marisa added with a shrug, entirely unfazed by the state of the shrine in contrast to Kasen. "Maybe she found a lead."

"Maybe..." Kasen absent-mindedly muttered, though she was inwardly unconvinced. "Either way, just standing on this desolate shrine won't do us any good if the shrine maiden is nowhere to be found. But, speaking of, you were going to tell Reimu about your attacker, weren't you?"

"Yup," Marisa responded, "She really wanted to know about that before, but I never got the chance to tell her about it with this whole broken arm thing." Kasen's gaze naturally fell towards Marisa's arm, incarcerated with a type of pristine, white cast Kasen had never before witnessed; she assumed it was Lunarian technology, as casts from Gensokyo were considerably more rudimentary in design. "I told a few things to Eirin and Reisen, though. What, you wanna know, too?"

 _Was that what went on when they made me look for medicine in the storage...?_ Kasen thought while suppressing her urge to laugh, but she was unable to resist faintly smiling, much to Marisa's momentary confusion. Seeing said confusion arise in Marisa through her inquisitive gaze, Kasen closed her eyes so as to recompose herself, only to pensively hum when she had finally decided to truly ponder on Marisa's offer. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt having that kind of information with me..."

Marisa grimaced. "You could've at least pretended you cared," she retorted. "But whatever. So, I'm pretty sure the guy was from the Human Village; he came right out of it just to talk to me. He looked like he was around my age, had black hair in a ponytail, a beard on the short side; nothing much to note about his looks. If anything, what he told me before our duel was more interesting."

Curious, Kasen asked, "What did he say?"

"He wasn't willing to go into detail about it, but because I was so skeptical of his fighting ability, he blurted out somethin' about the weird power," Marisa explained, "Apparently, he could use it to enhance parts of his body and speed up the healing process of wounds. If my hat's any reference, he was shooting out heat magic of some sort, too. But most of all, he said enhancement wasn't all it could do: he talked about manipulating people and objects, creating them yourself, you name it. It was like he was on his way to becoming a magician."

Kasen ominously frowned. "That does remind me of magic..."

"Right? But he denied it when I asked," Marisa said with increasing enthusiasm, as even she had started getting wrapped up into her own narrative, "Kept telling me it was all about 'controlling aura'. According to him, youkai can't use it, either; you gotta be human to do it. It's supposedly why the village is making a big deal out of it: it's a power any human can use, and it's effective against youkai, to boot. The guy was raring to go exterminate youkai, so he wanted to test his powers out on me." Then, upon recalling the final parts of the encounter, Marisa could not help but pause. While initially, she had meant to briefly consider how to best and most engagingly phrase her impression of the occurrence, the somber remembrance of throbbing pain and her racing heart, combined with her desperate flight for the very shrine she was standing on left her frowning, almost wistfully so. "To be honest, I thought I was gonna die back then, but he wasn't even tryin' to kill me."

"I see..." Kasen's right hand rested on her chin as she cast her eyes to the ground, only lightly noting the few cherry blossom petals in sight since they could not compare with the information she had been provided with. _Could the mastermind be a magician trying to make more people become magicians, or something of the sort? No, that doesn't make any sense. Even if the properties seem similar to magic, the difference in energy between them is uncanny. Besides, what could a magician gain from getting more people to use magic?_ "Then, if it isn't magic, what is it even called?"

Marisa wryly smiled. "He called it 'Nen'."

"Nen?" _I've never heard of something like that._ "That's definitely simpler than I thought for a foreign power, but..." Uncertain of her next course of action, especially when facing Marisa's current state, Kasen took a brief moment to re-assess what would be best for the situation. Meanwhile, Marisa stared at Kasen expectantly, though she had truthfully planned on adding to her short statement if not for Kasen's clear lack of an ending to her own sentence. Afterwards, Marisa's eyebrows rose at the same time Kasen had locked eyes with her. Her gaze was alarmingly convicted, and her stance tense to the point Marisa was starting to feel slight concern over the change in mood. "I wouldn't trust the attacker's information, if I were you."

"Huh?" Marisa frowned, troubled, and scratched her head as she mulled over Kasen's words. "Wait, is it because he attacked me? I mean, it was really freakin' dangerous, but he was only testing out his powers so **—** "

"That man was lying to you, Marisa."

Kasen's voice had been cold, perhaps too cold, and it had stunned Marisa into silence mid-sentence. Marisa processed her words with wide eyes, unable to lose sight of Kasen's overwhelmingly serious expression. "And what makes you say that?" Marisa cautiously asked.

Reasoning that she had perhaps phrased herself in a needlessly harsh manner, Kasen sighed. "Believe it or not..." Regardless, her expression still conveyed a significant sense of urgency, even if she had released most of the tension she had pent up when thinking of what the mysterious man had told Marisa. "The reason why I knew Nen was real beforehand was because I was attacked by a youkai who happened to wield the exact same type of energy. That youkai was shrouded with Nen."

Stricken with shock, Marisa had within her nothing more than the frightening mental image of a youkai well-versed in Nen, and a single, straightforward word that encapsulated her current state of mind to disconcerting lengths: "What...?"

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Reimu yawned, unwilling to take note of her surroundings now that she was sure little danger was going to befall her. While varying people stared her way because of her strange appearance and visibly displeased expression, Reimu ignored them for her present goal, which was only steps away. With drowsy eyes, Reimu looked up so as to take sight of the top of the tower, though even then, it could only barely be seen from her position. _What a flashy place,_ she neutrally remarked, _Is the top supposed to be where the strongest people are?_ Despite not looking forward while walking, Reimu had taken to reflexively dodging any pedestrian in her way, while said pedestrians could only find themselves in brief awe at her subconscious prowess. _Getting to the bottom floors from there just looks like a pain to me._

Then, when she looked back down at her surroundings, a dense assortment of people was before her. Reimu tried to spot the tower's entrance, knowing she was close by, but the amount of people lined up obstructed it. Having assumed people were lining up to enter the tower, Reimu decided to instead find the end of the line and walk over, but the amount of people intending to enter was so great that Reimu could not help sighing from the sight. She stepped towards the end of the line, which was far from the tower itself, and watched as most of the people glanced her way when she casually placed herself behind the exceedingly long queue of tall, robust men. Her slender physique and easygoing stance had drawn the attention of many, including the man in front of her, who turned around as if to confirm she was, indeed, part of the line.

"Hey," Reimu uttered the moment she noted his presence. "Is it true this tower is where really strong people gather?" Taken aback by her straightforward attitude, the middle-aged man blinked successively for a few seconds before frowning, seemingly troubled. He was silent for a few seconds, leading Reimu to almost impatiently glare at him, but her tapping foot was proof enough that Reimu was absolutely serious about the question and waiting for it more than eagerly, something he had not initially understood from the sudden stranger.

"... That's right," the man said, "Heaven's Arena is the go-to place for anyone who enjoys fighting. The higher the floors, the stronger the opponent." He stared at Reimu, as if to scrutinize her strength, and his eyebrows creased while he gestured towards the tower considerably far from them. "Do you, uh... Think you're up to the challenge, miss?" Hearing snickering from behind him, the man's frown only deepened out of concern for Reimu, even though Reimu herself appeared unfazed; she had not even noticed the people in line. "Anybody can participate, but this might be a little tough for a girl like you. If you're not serious about this, I'd recommend giving up."

Reimu crossed her arms as she pondered on the man's words. "If anybody can participate, I don't see how this can only be for serious fighters. In my view, none of the people in line seemed to be anything special, so I was starting to doubt I would find what I'm looking for here," she plainly stated in a voice that was neither loud nor quiet. It had been enough for the snickering people behind the man to hear her, but, despite taking offence, they had only scowled before deciding to ignore Reimu.

The man, meanwhile, nervously chuckled. "You've sure got some high standards, miss," he commented, "But I get where you're coming from. A lot of the people standing in line are just desperate for money while being somewhat confident of their strength, so they don't compare to the fighters in the higher floors. Did you come here to fight them?"

"You could say that," Reimu absent-mindedly responded before she processed all of the man's explanation. Then, in a mix of confusion and surprise, Reimu's eyes widened. "Wait, can you get money from fighting in here? Is that why this place is so popular?"

"You didn't know?!" the man incredulously questioned. "If you fight in the first floor, you get money whether you win or lose, but the amount's nothing compared to what you get past the fiftieth floor when you win." Seeing Reimu's genuinely pensive expression, the man bitterly smiled. "I've got to admit, I didn't expect to see a young girl like you come over to Heaven's Arena just to fight... Are you stronger than you look?"

Reimu grimaced. "I look plenty strong already," she snapped, "It's not my fault you can't see it." However, in face of her current goals, she had then waved away the topic while staring at the man expectantly. "But anyway, you sound like you know a lot about this tower place. Can you tell me how these stronger people fight?"

"Knowing that won't give you any advantages," the man warned in a low and calm, perhaps condescending voice, almost as an accusation were implied with his words. Regardless, he continued to speak: "Besides, some of people in the higher floors are a complete enigma. They fight with techniques so out there you'd think they're magicians, not the fighting machines they really are. I'm hoping to get past the fiftieth floor, but I'm not stupid enough to think I'd ever win against someone who's past two hundred floors. If you're planning to get to the top, you better be careful."

"So you're saying these people can use magic?" Reimu casually questioned, much to the man's dismay considering the great contrast between her mood and his.

Reimu's expression reflected nothing but curiosity and drowsiness, which was more than enough as a basis for the man's concerns. After a moment of saring at her, almost hoping she would change her mind, the man sighed. "You've got guts, at least, but I'm hoping that's not all you have..."

"Just answer my question," Reimu demanded, displeased. "This is really important to me, you know?"

"Alright, alright..." the man tiredly said, if only to stop Reimu from speaking further. "You might be thinking I know everything about Heaven's Arena, but I was only a spectator before I decided to give it a try. I only know as much as any ordinary person does."

"And right now, I don't know anything an ordinary person does, so I've got to get information from somewhere," Reimu promptly shot back, her stance assertive. "I'm trying to see if coming to this tower is going to be a waste of my time or not. I could use some description of what these strong people do. For example, can they increase their physical strength beyond a human's limits or manipulate people?"

"I don't know about manipulating people, but..." The man paused with a grimace as he considered Reimu's words. "They can control a lot of things, that's for sure. Some of them have weapons that look harmless, but are as sharp as a knife. Others are so strong they could punch through a boulder unscathed. It's not rare seeing new fighters losing limbs or even dying past two hundred floors; you'd have to be as crazy as them to get by."

"And they're human?"

"What else could they be? Magical beasts?" the man sourly questioned.

"Maybe," Reimu responded in a vacant fashion. She was looking up at the tower, towards the top. However, even despite the slightly somber mood of the conversation, the man saw in Reimu no signs of fear or caution.

Unable to look past it any longer, he scowled. "I'm sorry, miss, but I think you're underestimating Heaven's Arena. Didn't you hear what I said? You could die," he claimed in a voice belying a sense of urgency, "Their fighting ability is nothing to joke about."

Reimu faced the man again, her gaze clear of weakness, unwavering. "I'm not joking around," Reimu asserted, "I told you this was important. And from the looks of it, I came to the right place. If their powers are just like you told me, then I've got to get to the upper floors, no matter what." Then, she rose her right arm, which was currently wielding her Purification Rod. The movement attracted some attention, as some thought she could be brandishing the weapon, but she was instead releasing overwhelming conviction through her gesture, which came across as exceedingly passionate for someone who had appeared so casual before. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this and nobody's stopping me!"

The man glanced in every direction, knowing Reimu's exclamation had been loud enough for anyone nearby to hear her: some had turned away again with condescending huffs, while others glared at her from the side, but it was clear no one wanted to be involved with her, to the man's relief. But then again, he reasoned, Reimu herself seemed free of concern; as such, was there truly any need for him to feel that way for her? "You're really one of a kind, you know that? It's no wonder you're entering Heaven's Arena," the man remarked, his voice calmer than before, calm and resigned enough to make some of the motivation in Reimu subside as she took in his words.

Even so, Reimu's face scrunched up in the sheer displeasure after processing the meaning of his comment. "I don't want to be lumped together with a bunch of suspicious magicians in a tower, you know?" She shot a glare the man's way, and, verifying a complete lack of malice from it, he could not help but soundly chuckle.

"Once you get there, you won't have a choice," he retorted, "so I guess you've gotta suck it up, miss!" He wholeheartedly smiled, while Reimu's eyes widened slightly out of faint confusion. The man noted that, but found that it was an improvement from her loud self since she was much more relaxed and, strangely enough, simultaneously more attentive to what he was saying. "By the way, what's your name? I'm Resso. I don't know how strong you _really_ are, but if you're this confident, that better count for something."

 _He's suddenly friendly,_ Reimu thought, but smiled regardless. "Now you think I can do it? It took you long enough. Anyway, I'm Reimu Hakurei. My... Uh.." Reimu paused as she mulled over what to say next, especially as she realized that she was probably in the Outside World. "My home is really far from here, so I don't know much about how this society works."

"I figured you were a foreigner. Well, what can I say? It's nice meeting you, Reimu!" The man stretched his arm out for a handshake, an action that Reimu was initially taken aback by.

She blinked, only to return the gesture. "Sure," she said while flashing an awkward smile, as if Reimu were not entirely sure of how to take the situation. Regardless, her handshake was firm. "Nice to meet you. Though, now that you mentioned me being a foreigner, I _am_ curious about this country. Can't you also tell me about it while we wait? It looks like it'll be a while before I start fighting anyone."

"That's nothing compared to what we'll face on Heaven's Arena," he said, "so I don't mind. A lot of tourists come for the arena when they're on this side of the country, but beyond that, there's also..."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Simply standing and talking to someone was admittedly not Reimu's favored pastime when her priorities lay on solving an incident, but she had reasoned it was much better than simply standing on queue while counting the many minutes she was wasting away when the mastermind was still running free. Resso, however, proved to be more talkative and friendly than expected, leaving Reimu with more information than she could possibly remember, especially as some of it was wholly irrelevant to her goals.

Despite that, Reimu noted that he came in handy when she had finally reached the counter the queue was lining up for. The young woman behind it had handed her a form to write in, but Reimu was unable to even fathom what the letters on it meant. Both the young woman and Resso had been struck with awe by Reimu's ignorance, and many men waiting on Reimu had been understandably frustrated at the time she was taking to finish her form, but Reimu herself had focused only on the situation at hand, uncaring of people's reactions.

Currently, she was past the counter and treading through a wide corridor leading to what she assumed to be the 'arena', with Resso by her side. "It's only natural they don't allow weapons until the 200th floor. You're supposed to be physically strong enough to get through them all with your fists. After the 200th floor, though, it's like a different world, so people will be watching out for you as a well-rounded fighter. Otherwise, you can't get through it in one piece."

"Huh..." Reimu vacantly uttered, choosing to give priority to taking in her surroundings rather than the entirety of what Resso was telling her. Other men were advancing, but none of them seemed particularly tough, in Reimu's eyes. Then, she processed the varying shouts coming from the room she was about to enter. "Well, this is it."

She had stepped forward first, and saw before her flights of stairs and a multitude of seats, many of which occupied by men of different sizes. In the very center of the area were men in pairs, made to fight each other on top of tall platforms; at the edge of these rings, people in uniforms were stationed in order to oversee the occurring matches. "Number 1425, Number 1380, please enter Ring B," a female voice rang out through speakers on the high walls, loud enough for the entire crowd to hear. Reimu had looked around, searching for the origin of the voice, but she saw no young girl in the vicinity.

"We're not any of those," Resso reassured, having assumed that to be the reason for Reimu's confusion. She paid little mind to Resso's statement but, assuming it was Outside World technology she did not understand, Reimu shrugged before following Resso down the stairs. "Let's go closer to the rings. Then, when they call us, we'll be right there."

Reimu nodded. "That does sound convenient," she remarked as she looked over the seats. The men who met her gaze would return it with confusion or amusement, though Reimu herself was unfazed. _None of these people look any different from normal humans. I suppose I'll only find the big fish upstairs. One of them's got to wield that weird power._

Resso and Reimu sat on the edge of a row of seats and watched the fights take place. Reimu stared at Ring B, as she remembered a pair had recently been called there. Another couple of fighters had been called afterwards, but Reimu's attention was fixated on the large, burly man on Ring B kicking a shorter man out of the ring, marking his own victory. Reimu pensively hummed as she took in the sight. "Do you think any of these people could get to the 200th floor?" Reimu asked.

Meanwhile, Resso, pondering on Reimu's inquiry, could not help but grimace. "Probably not," he bitterly answered, "And if they do, they might regret it."

Reimu's eyes narrowed in on the muscular man who was stepping away from Ring B. "That's what I thought," she muttered before facing Resso. "If the upper floors are like you say they are, you're also better off sticking to the lower floors."

"I know that much," Resso countered, "I just want to make some money and pay off my debt. After that, I'm out of here." Seemingly confused, he frowned apprehensively. "But even though you're saying that, you don't look like you're going to quit."

"That's because I won't." Reimu smiled as she set her eyes on the ongoing match at Ring C. "Compared to what I've dealt with before, this is nothing." Men nearby glanced her way when she said that, but Reimu's proud stance remained intact seeing as she did not take note of the stares. "I wouldn't be able to do my job if I couldn't get past this."

"Huh?" Resso's eyes widened in shock. "Does your job involve fighting? What kind of job would that be?"

Reimu flinched as she alarmingly processed that she had revealed too much about herself. "W-well, I'm just a shrine maiden, but I also take care of... Problems, yes. If someone's being too rowdy, I..." Reimu attempted to summarize her sentence through various gestures, but Resso's confusion was evident enough that she put a stop to her efforts with an apprehensive smile. "You know?"

"I don't really know what you're getting at, but..." Resso locked eyes with Reimu and grimly frowned in light of his own thoughts. "Could you be a Hunter? Because if you are, your attitude makes a lot of sense to me now."

"A Hunter?" _Are they strong?_ Before Reimu could openly ask that, however, the female voice resounded through the area once more.

"... 1736, Number 1986, please enter Ring E."

"That's my number," Reimu immediately stated while standing from her seat. "I'll get going now. I don't think we'll be seeing each other again, so this is goodbye. Thanks for the information." Reimu spared Resso a casual glance as she walked out of the row of seats and descended the stairs.

"Good luck out there!" Reimu heard Resso shout that to her and smiled, but felt no need to give him a response. Instead, she looked around in search of her opponent, having assumed he would be moving down any set of stairs nearby.

In only a moment, she laid eyes on a tall, but slender man walking for Ring E, who Reimu immediately noted as her opponent. With her smile intact, she headed for Ring E as well, though she had only now finished moving down the stairs. _He must be eager,_ Reimu lightly thought. She gazed deep into the tall man, but found herself completely unaffected by his unpleasant sneer.

Lacking in fear or anxiety, Reimu jumped onto the Ring and locked determined eyes with the man. By the time she had been standing on the ring, another man wearing a red uniform had been nearby, his expression calm but unassuming. "On the first floor, we evaluate each participant's level," he stoicly explained, "In order to do so, you will have three minutes to demonstrate your strength. Are we clear?" Reimu and the tall man nodded at the same time. "Now, then..." Reimu assumed a fighting stance, but the tall man only regarded that in amusement and loosely mimicked it in response. "Begin!"

Reimu charged at the tall man. "Feisty, aren't ya, little miss?" When she was mere centimeters from him, she heard the man huff before swiftly sidestepping his kick. While her opponent's leg was lowering to the floor and he was starting to turn to his left in an attempt to intercept Reimu, she ducked and swung her leg towards the back of his own with as much strength as she could muster. The force of the kick was enough for the tall man to lose his balance as his leg throbbed in pain and his foot slid through the sweat-filled, flat ring from the impact. Reimu stood from her position just as quickly, hearing the man wince, and grabbed him by his left arm. Though tall man had aimed to throw a punch at Reimu with his right arm even while he almost seemed to be falling, Reimu pulled him to her right, throwing him to the floor while taking advantage of his lack of balance.

The man groaned in pain, while his head already hung from outside the ring. Though he attempted to stand up as quickly as possible, when he was only halfway into the action, Reimu rushed for him. In the blink of an eye, almost as if she had teleported to the position, Reimu was precisely in front of the tall man, aiming a kick at his stomach. The referee of the match and those who were attentively watching it blinked in shock at her blinding speed, albeit Reimu herself had not noticed it. Her kick soundly connected with the man's body, and the collision caused the man to briefly gasp as he flew out of the ring before he had even been able to recompose himself from Reimu's previous attack.

The tall man landed on his back, and lay on the floor with an expression of shock. Reimu pondered on whether to pursue him outside of the ring or not, but from the pain of the blow to his stomach, her opponent was seemingly struggling to stand as fast as he could have before, taking up precious seconds that Reimu saw as only advantageous in order to end the fight as quickly as possible. As such, she waited for him on the ring, staring as he pressed his hand against the ground to support his weight.

However, at that point, it had been too late; Reimu frowned down at the man, almost as though pitying him from afar. The man had glared at her in return, and groaned from the continuous pain caused by Reimu's attacks. It was clear to Reimu herself that he was not especially well-versed in battle, and that fact lingered on her mind as another reason not to follow after the man. "That's enough!" Upon hearing that from the referee, The tall man merely let himself fall back down in resignation, covering his face with both of his hands. Meanwhile, varying voices of astonishment flooded the arena.

"Who's that woman?! She beat that guy in no time!"

"Did you see her speed?! I could barely keep up!"

"That's the first time I've even seen a woman around here!"

Paying no mind to the voices (though she was inwardly proud of the recognition), Reimu took a deep breath before turning to the referee. He had stepped towards her while fidgeting with an object Reimu could not recognize, and it only confused her further when a piece of paper came out of it. "Your agility and technique are superb," he remarked as he took the paper out of the machine; Reimu could not help but confidently smile. "You're free to go to the 50th floor, but don't hold back the next time you fight."

"Alright," she loosely responded as took the paper that had been stretched out before her. Afterwards, she jumped from the ring and looked for Resso within the area, hoping to know his reaction for a last time before leaving him behind completely, especially as he had been underestimating her before.

When her eyes stopped on Resso's familiar figure, Reimu frowned. He was passed out on ring A, battered from the blows of a younger, but muscular man. The man triumphantly rose his fists up in the air and fished for reactions, though most of the crowd had been focused on Reimu's supposedly unlikely victory, and shot her glare when he realized that. Her priorities elsewhere, however, Reimu's gaze simply rested on Resso for a single moment, as her frowned began to assume a somber edge. _I suppose you weren't ready for the arena, either._

Reimu turned away from Resso and proceeded towards the exit, vowing to reach the upper floors no matter what.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The late evening approached Heaven's Arena, but the towering building showed no signs of calming down with time. Even now, crowds loudly cheered for a panting Reimu, who happened to be facing a man much larger than her. Admittedly enough, she had started to get exhausted after the many matches she had to go through. The differences in skill between the man on the first floor and the man she was currently facing was considerable, and Reimu was not only sleepy, but handling the fatigue of fighting rows of robbers along with 4 other fighters.

Despite that, Reimu remained unscathed if not for a stinging pain in her legs from an unnatural amount of kicks laid down on her opponents so far. Due to Reimu's incessant dodging, her opponent, too, was panting in exhaustion, but he was able to notice Reimu's fatigue, as well. Seeing it as his chance, he went for one last charge and dashed for Reimu, who tensed at the speed. "Oh! It looks like Dist is the first to move! Will he finally be able to land a hit on a tired Reimu, or will Reimu put an end to the fight with another clean hit?!" the female announcer shouted enthusiastically, perhaps overly so as her high-pitched voice lingered somewhat unpleasantly in her ears, but Reimu had long but learned to ignore that for the arena.

Her tired eyes sharply gained complete awareness of the surroundings, and with impeccable timing, she had moved to the side and distanced herself from the large man. Unbeknownst to the large man and the audience, Reimu's feet were off of the floor by a very short distance, and Reimu was floating in the air; she flew to the side before heading for her opponent's back. "Reimu effortlessly moves away from Dist, once again!" She made it seem as though she jumped, but she had also flown for the back of his neck so her fist could specifically collide with that area. While the blow had connected, the man only flinched slightly, almost unaffected since Reimu had missed the specific area for what appeared to be overwhelming muscle mass.

Paying no mind to the announcer commenting on the lacking effectiveness of her hit, Reimu watched as the large man turned towards her and swung his fist in her direction. Reimu ducked, only to stretch herself upwards and raise her right arm, aiming for an uppercut. Her ability to fly propelled her forward at great speeds, and Reimu had only wished to end the match as quickly as possible. Even so, from the corner of her eye, she spotted the man's other fist heading for Reimu's stomach; her eyes widened in shock. She could not physically dodge that hit now that she had been midair conducting the uppercut. While she would undoubtedly punch the man on his jaw with all of her might, Reimu was alarmed at the fact that she also had no means to avoid his punch.

In desperation, Reimu conjured a barrier; a barely visible barrier. "What's this?!" It pushed the man's left arm away from Reimu as she swiftly hit him from below his jaw without suffering any injury. "While it looked as though Dist was preparing to dish out his first clean hit, he retracted his punch at the very last minute, allowing Reimu to safely land her final attack on him!" Meanwhile, the man had been forcefully rendered unable to breathe for the slightest of seconds, and the strength behind the punch combined with the sensitive area Reimu had attacked caused the large man to flinch and fall to the floor almost instantly.

Reimu landed on the floor simultaneously to her opponent and stared at him, knowing he was unconscious. "Clean hit and knockdown!" the referee shouted while lifting his arm, exposing the amount of points earned by Reimu by raising three fingers.

"And Reimu secures yet another consecutive victory with 11 points!" Reimu glanced to her left and right, loosely inspecting the crowds. Their expressions of awe and glee, while normally something to proudly smile for, were nothing important to note now that Reimu only wanted to leave the ring. "She's been gracefully dodging her opponents' every attack so far, but will she reach the top unharmed, or will her reflexes finally be matched?!"

Reimu merely walked out of the ring, mentally remarking on her fatigue. She wondered where she could rest, but was not particularly concerned about it from the money she had been receiving after each match. Afterwards, her thoughts drifted to the barrier she had to conjure in order to defeat her opponent. She was unsure if it counted as a weapon, but she was glad no one had noticed it, nonetheless.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The Human Village at night had little human activity, though some shops had remained open. Certain figures, while humanoid, could be identifiable as youkai, and they were momentarily welcome to shop. However, most human villagers had already secluded themselves in their own homes, fast asleep to welcome a new, safer morning.

Suzunaan, on the other hand, had recently become one of such youkai-welcoming establishments. It held an assortment of ominous books, all of which youkai would find interest in due to the spiritual power contained in them, but some were not for rent, surprisingly enough, and were meant only for personal use. Due to that, the shop had yet to truly garner the attention of most youkai who dwelled in the village, so its schedule had suffered little to no changes, with only an increase in opening hours by two. As such, Kosuzu Motoori, active worker for Suzunaan, was currently fast asleep in her own bedroom, located in the same building as the store.

It was then that ominous eyes glinted in the darkness within a tear in space. From it came, at first, a single gloved hand. It stretched and stretched, revealing then the upper arm and clothed chest of a well-known youkai. When her legs finally showed, they did not land on the floor, and merely hung from the gap formed. Laying recently-appearing eyes on a sleeping Kosuzu, Yukari Yakumo found herself smiling. Now was the time.

"Hey," Yukari called while lightly shaking Kosuzu with a single hand, though the strength lodged in just a youkai's hand was powerful enough to have Kosuzu's body sway considerably. "Wake up; this is important."

With the sudden, surprisingly strong movement forced on Kosuzu, she groggily groaned as she partially regained her consciousness. "Wha..." Kosuzu's eyes opened slightly, but her vision was still blurry. "Who's..." Regardless, she had noticed someone's presence next to her, from the corner of her left eye. Hints of purple and white clashed with the normal clothing worn by her family members, and the realization that something foreign was nearby dawned on her in but a moment. "There?" Kosuzu blinked and rubbed her eyes, but the sound of an elegantly chuckling Yukari had immediately alerted her to the presence of someone who certainly should not have been there. Kosuzu's eyes widened in shock, and she gasped. "Y-you...!" She pointed at Yukari with a trembling arm, though her missing glasses did not spot Yukari's features in full detail.

Yukari carried a raised index finger over her mouth. "Do be quiet," Yukari softly ordered, her voice almost like a whisper. "We wouldn't want to wake anyone up now, would we? Even if the dawn is almost upon us, this still is the middle of the night, after all."

"Uh..." Kosuzu had struggled to comprehend Yukari's words in the middle of her great shock, but she figured Yukari was more than serious about wanting her quiet. As much as she was still exceedingly nervous about the sudden intrusion, Kosuzu gulped and attempted to face the situation in a calm, albeit awkward manner. "M-ms. Yukari... Just why exactly are you in my room all of a sudden?"

"To visit you, of course," Yukari quickly and contently responded. "I would have picked a better time and place, but I'm in quite a bit of a pickle, you see. If I appear in the daytime, I may end up being noticed by a few pesky people who may or may not know of my presence already." Due to her vaguely lighthearted tone in what seemed to be entirely serious sentences, Kosuzu had a hard time understanding Yukari's perspective, though her smile had faded while explaining herself. Yukari's expression was pensive, if not slightly absent-minded; her gaze was directed to the side.

Kosuzu confusedly frowned. "So, you _do_ have something important to talk to me about, right?" she questioned, half of her hoping she had not been woken up for little reason. _It won't be related to Ms. Reimu again, will it?_ Another part of her feared that she was going to be warned by Yukari again, as much as she knew that was highly unlikely when Reimu had already acknowledged her. Regardless, in her apprehension, Kosuzu gripped the chest area of her pajamas.

"My, you say that as though I have a habit of telling people irrelevant things in the middle of the night," Yukari remarked without a single trace of malice or negativity, seemingly amused. "Have I not been helpful to you before? Then, consider this to be your chance to pay me back and listen carefully." Kosuzu's frown deepened, but from her silence and tense stance, it was clear that she was willing to listen. "You live an ordinary life in the Human Village, but ultimately, you are on Reimu's side; of Reimu's ilk, if you must, even if only slightly. This means you currently enjoy the best of both worlds, while standing out in none as a significant threat. Wouldn't you say this makes you the perfect candidate to become my undercover agent?"

"Huh? What does that **—** "

Yukari gently shushed Kosuzu, who bitterly pouted in reaction. "I imagine you're confused, but I have to admit I don't have much time to explain it to you right now. Let's schedule a secret meeting, shall we?" Yukari's smile widened. "If you're curious about what I'm proposing to you, I'll give you the lengthy continuation to it tomorrow, at the Hakurei Shrine. Make sure to come alone in the afternoon; I'll be waiting." With a cheerful parting wave of her arm, Yukari gracefully sunk into her own gap.

"What? Wait!" However, even Yukari's outstretched arm had been within the gap by the time Kosuzu had loudly protested against it, and the gap itself was swiftly closing. "Ms. Yukari!" Kosuzu had reached out for the gap, but felt nothing, as if it had never been there in the first place. Distraught, and mostly confused by the nature of Yukari's visit, Kosuzu lay still for moments in silence, pondering on what she had been told.

 _An undercover agent? Why would she suddenly think I could be something like that?_ As it stood, Kosuzu could at least assume Yukari needed her for some purpose, even if Kosuzu did not properly understand it. _I don't really get any of this, but if she wanted my help she could've just asked. Besides, I do owe her one._ Kosuzu yawned as her body reminded her of her own drowsiness now that Yukari was no longer present. However, in light of the many possibilities inherent from Yukari's vague phrasing, Kosuzu could not help but smile. _And now that she left it hanging like that, I can't not go to the shrine tomorrow. She's expecting me to come and everything..._

Kosuzu vacantly looked up at the ceiling while completely lying down, the curious glint in her gaze unwavering. "I wonder what's going to happen tomorrow; I hope it's nothing _too_ dangerous..." While she loosely worried over her own safety, deep down, Kosuzu had long but made her decision.

She firmly closed her eyes, aiming to sleep and gain enough energy to traverse the path to the shrine on the next day.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

To be honest, if I had to tell you the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of this chapter, I'd say 'The Tragic Story of Resso's Arena Exploits' XD _Ressooooo_ , you named OC, you...! You just wanted to pay off your crippling debt and fix things with your wife, and yet! He had such convenient exposition, and such a good combination of awkwardness and friendliness! I'll never forget you, Resso, even if you're a minor OC who probably won't show up again! I had a bunch of plans for the arena, but I mostly just needed Reimu to have someone who could help her out when it came to explaining how things work, or whether it's really worth it for Reimu to be in the arena or not, etc... Leading to me to create Resso so Reimu had somebody to talk to in good terms about these things. In my first conceptions of Resso, he was going to be much more outgoing and friendly, finding amusement in Reimu's attitude right away and chat with her without any hesitation. However, when I sat down to write Resso, I felt like I could use a more flawed character to be a sort of foil to Reimu's optimism and straightforward nature. Because of that, he became much more self-conscious and unassuming, but he's really just reserved. When you get to know him and he starts taking a liking to you, he's much more open and talkative; he's also overbearing. He's middle-aged in narration, but he's more like in his forties? I didn't want him to be very young, and he had to be a man, so he's like that.

A few things I noticed upon research: it's not entirely clear if Heaven's Arena is in Padokea, or if it's in a place near Padokea according to the world map of Hunter x Hunter; because of his, I ended up not revealing which country Reimu was at. Another thing is the lack of women in Heaven's Arena. Hunter x Hunter itself has strong women; I'm pretty sure Machi was pretty high up on the list of strongest at arm wrestling and there are a bunch of women who do fight well. But Heaven's Arena has... No female participants shown ever? If you notice the shots in the anime and manga, there are only guys in queue and only guys are up against Gon and Killua; even in the original anime movie, the Floor Masters are all men. The only women you see are in the audience, the announcer and employees who aren't referees, which, speaking of, are all men. However, anyone can enter Heaven's Arena, as stated by Killua, so I imagine it isn't that there isn't a rule against women participating, but that women are usually not qualified to fight. Sounds sexist, but I guess it's more likely that there would be only men fighting with their muscles in the arena...? I don't know, but in light of that, I assumed women in Heaven's Arena are so rare that you'd stand out if you were in queue and actually winning against men. So, Reimu got a lot of attention.

Then there's also the fact that everybody in the 200th floor of the arena openly use Nen, but Nen is supposed to be an obscure matter. I'm guessing it's shown, but never explained what it is and everybody assumes it's just random tricks and fighting abilities that they'll never understand. It's just odd to me that there would be such a public place in which Nen can be used and forcefully taught to non-Hunters when Nen is something Hunters strive to keep a secret from examiners in the Hunter Exam, for example (edit: I swore I'd corrected these Author's Notes when I received a review saying they were wrong but somehow, I hadn't before; I'm so sorry! I did it now, though!). Also, in the first floor, Gon completely owns this guy in one hit but somehow the referee thought he was only good enough for the 50th floor. Is the 50th floor just the automatic start for anybody with an excellent performance? The referee says he's judging the fighters' skills so they're assigned to their appropriate floors, implying that the referee could send you over to the 200th floor if he verified Nen in you, but Gon was just put in the 50th floor, and we only see Killua getting sent to the 180th because he's gotten to the 200th before. What sucks is that I also don't understand if the losers of a match are just not put in any floor or put in a lower set of floors, or told to try again later. We never see what happens to the losers, or even get any confirmation as to whether there are losers. The referee says he's looking at the performance of both, but every guy we see losing is unconscious; what are they going to do with those guys?

This is why I made it so the tall guy had 1) sustained some damage 2) taken a while to stand. Reimu was just too damn fast even for three minutes, but I didn't think she could have all that much to show off afterwards, so I wanted the fight to end there. Besides, Reimu probably has a mean kick: when a guy freaking flies off of the ring and collides with his back, he isn't suddenly alright, especially when he was kicked in the abdomen/stomach at full force while off-guard. I've pondered deeply on Reimu's strength, and thought that physical strength itself was not her forte, but she was, nonetheless, an experienced fighter. This is why her moves were all focused on throwing the physically strong opponent off-balance or taking advantage of weak spots to really do some damage. However, Reimu fights entities that are many times stronger than the regular human: people may argue none of it involves physical attacks, but you could also say they are allowed in the battle as long as they're non-lethal if you look at the fighting games. Furthermore, if we say the battles are exactly like in the main games, they'll be going against canon since all the complications talked about in Print Works regarding the Spellcard rules aren't explicitly shown in-game, like Reimu and her opponent announcing the number of cards they're going to use and whatnot. Another thing is that Yorihime (the Watatsuki princess from the Moon) was able to parry Marisa's projectiles or cut through them without consequence in Silent Sinner in Blue, the only case where we see a Spellcard battle in a straightforward narrative. It seems safer to assume the battles are more like the fighting games, but with the density in spellcards the main games have.

With that in mind, Reimu has probably used her fighting skills on youkai, and likely has to guard herself from attacks by strong youkai, and has to deal with slight physical combat when solving incidents and fighting in general. However, I don't think she's super physically strong or anything: I think she's fit, if anything, but not muscular or reliant in her physical strength, making her more suited for combat with weapons that damage youkai more critically. The youkai themselves likely go easy on her in physical combat, and Reimu is usually throwing paper charms around. Despite that, she's been fighting for years, and in her first years solving incidents, she was stuck using her own powers. I think that her fighting prowess is too good for her to realistically lose to regular human men, power level wise. How she fares with Hunters, however, we'll just have to see. Besides, Reimu is probably a dodging master in comparison to pretty much anyone and she's got spiritual and barrier powers, so... Also, Reimu was really fast over at her first match because of her powers unconsciously being at work. You know when she's moving around in Imperishable Night on her boss battle, almost like she's being super fast? Reimu herself apparently doesn't notice she does this (according to Marisa), but it's a thing. I thought this part of Reimu's side would be the most simple because the way Heaven's Arena works is explained alright, but I had to clarify A LOT of things, like the points system and referees, and in what situations the announcer said things. I was hesitant in writing the announcer, but it was actually really easy.

Marisa and Kasen were a thing. The scene served a very clear purpose, but it was also not particularly entertaining. I liked Marisa in it, but I had a bit of difficulty writing the scene since it was short and had to end on a sudden, 'plot twist...!' note that may or may not have been awkward instead. Still, I want to clarify things, and leave a bunch in the dark, so I didn't want it to drag. Anyway, the scene with Yukari, on the other hand, I had more fun with. Yukari in general is pretty fun to write. Yukari's dialogue always has meaning, so it's fun putting a lot of meaning into her words, or not putting meaning and wonder if people can exactly catch on. Yukari isn't that roundabout: well, she is, but isn't. So I don't actually make Yukari too enigmatic. I feel like usually, Yukari is dangling the solution so near people's faces that they can't quite grasp it, so, the answer is right there in plain sight, but in a way that you have a hard time catching on. Which is why I don't make Yukari too vague and complex in terms of dialogue: I feel like if I did so, I'd be trying too hard when the secret to writing Yukari, in my eyes, is relaxing and having fun; just knock yourself out. Besides, in a way, I think Yukari comes off more ominous and intelligent by not trying to be very vague, but just naturally being kind of vague.

If you've noticed, I do give Yukari a very distinct character voice. Very elegant, but not entirely polite. I'm not actually putting a lot of conscious effort into it: like I said, the key to Yukari, to me, is having fun, so I have a lot of fun making her talk. I struggled a little with Kosuzu, though. First off, I had no idea how she would refer to Yukari because there's no instance of Kosuzu referring to Yukari in Forbidden Scrollery. Second off, the situation was very different, and I had to deliberate a lot on what she'd think and say. However, in general, Kosuzu has a very simple, if not refreshing personality. She's not an idiot, in my eyes; just naive. I think she's got a good head on her shoulders, but it's hurt by Kosuzu's incessant curiosity, recklessness, naivete and interest in youkai and youma books. Emotionally, Kosuzu is pretty fun because she has all these extreme reactions, like being really shocked or being really scared, or being really happy. She's also more or less on the positive side, and seeks adventure. I think she's a bright character in every sense of the word, but flawed in varying ways, like all characters from Touhou; this is what makes her a good protagonist (that and her internal conflict in Forbidden Scrollery), in my opinion. ZUN is really a good writer.

Whatever the case, look forward to what's gonna happen in both Reimu's side and the Touhou side?


	5. Chapter 4

**First Words:**

* * *

 **somemadao - It's alright! Kasen's such a secretive character when it comes to her sage status that nobody has much of a clear answer on her role as one. I kind of wish Wild and Horned Hermit would eventually address Kasen's past and how she's like as a sage but since Touhou isn't much of a fan of character backstories, I have a feeling it'll mostly give a few hints and leave it at that (though this is just my two cents on it). Anyway, about Reimu, I actually find her character rather consistent...? Well, I think that Reimu is always the same, but how she acts is seen differently depending on the character in question. There are a lot of people who see the Reimu from the games and the Reimu from Wild and Horned Hermit as almost way too different to be the same character, but I honestly feel like all those different sides fit her just fine: she's always been reckless and straightforward despite being dutiful and insensitive (all the while being really easygoing), but these facets are applied differently to different situations. However, watching Reimu is like trying to watch somebody from a huge distance: since you can't access the full scope of the actions, you have to have your own perspective on the matter, even though Reimu herself isn't trying to be great and mysterious; she's just being herself. Thing is, her own distant, unreadable nature makes it so she isn't seen the same way by everyone... Or so goes my view on it. So, to me, she's flying, but within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere, if that makes sense; I feel like despite the nature of her abilities, she's very firmly human. Regardless, I see a good basis for your perspective, and I really like what you said about how Reimu seeks balance because, while I never thought about it that way, it's really true and it's reflected on a lot of her actions and thoughts. One thing, though: wasn't it Marisa who gave a time limit to Fantasy Heaven according to the Grimoire of Marisa? Besides, cheating in a spellcard battle is counter-productive, since the point of it is to show off so finding a fast way to win defeats the purpose of having a spellcard battle to begin with. I've also thought a lot on Reimu's abilities and her real power level (these Touhou stories really demanded it out of me), but if Reimu can just make herself float away from anything whenever she wants and however she wants, why hasn't she ever done that in times where she could have used the ability, like Urban Legend in Limbo where she desperately needed to head to the Outside World but instead fought a bunch of powerful people just so she can pass Kasen's nice crack? Beyond Fantasy Heaven and neat border stuff (and flying), she doesn't make much complex use of the ability, and seeing as even Yukari's ability doesn't come cheap for certain borders (like the one between the Moon and Earth), wouldn't Reimu's also not come very cheap? Furthermore, Reimu hates training, so I find myself inclined to believe she can't just use her ability for OP stuff all the time every time and become virtually invincible. Though, this is pretty much also my speculation. Either way, the second to last paragraph intrigues me a lot because I feel like you're absolutely right, but in Forbidden Scrollery I was so caught up with Kosuzu this side of Yukari's plan didn't come to mind, but omg you are right and it's awesome. The part about Reimu being easy to manipulate but also prone to breaking expectations is also really true, and really, I could sit and discuss Reimu (and Touhou in general) for days, to me this is really neat stuff. I hope it doesn't seem as though I'm imposing my own view as my intention was to exchange viewpoints instead because I find the topic interesting. Whatever the case, thank you very much for reviewing, following and putting the story in your favorites! Hopefully the story lives up to expectations!  
**

 **Guest - So, I checked pretty much the entire Heavens Arena arc for confirmation's sake, and it seems I misinterpreted Wing's words, which means you're right. What he said to Gon and Killua was that Nen was not revealed _in the Hunter Exam_ from the fear of it becoming widespread knowledge, not that it was a general secret reserved to Hunters. As such, Nen is something they are wary of revealing, but isn't officially confidential or limited to Hunters. Thankfully, this doesn't affect the story in any way beyond a few changes to my Author's Notes (which I did; thank you again!), but it does help me in the long run to know this, so thank you very much for reviewing and going out of your way to correct my misconception! Hopefully the story can live up to expectations!**

These are actually shortened versions of my responses to the guest reviews, such is my writing curse ^^' Even so, I do hope I have your understanding when it comes to the space taken by guest reviews: it should go without saying that all reviews are deserving of a proper response, and I plan on respecting this principle unless somehow there comes a time where this isn't possible (though I'm not sure if it'll happen since there will likely never come a time where any of my stories will have like 100000000000 guest reviews per chapter); either way, responding to people is important to me so some guest reviews might be kind of long. Putting that aside, since the last chapter, this story got 5 favorites and 5 followers, which is totally awesome considering I'm not really sure there exist all that many people active on this site who know and are interested in both Touhou and Hunter x Hunter; thank you very much!

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Black and White Spy on the Other Side**

* * *

Reimu stretched her sore arms and legs after standing from what she considered an exaggeratedly large and tall bed, which heavily reminded her of some rooms in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. However, she certainly had not complained about it when she had thrown herself into the bed the previous night. There were many soft sheets enveloping the bed, but Reimu had covered herself with none and merely let herself fall asleep over it, hoping to wake up with more energy. When she looked out the wide windows to her side, she saw the Sun high in the sky, so Reimu assumed she had overslept until midday.

Fortunately, the many matches she had gone through paid off in the end, since her admission to the 100th floor had earned her a private room which she was able to use to sleep. Before she had known of that, Reimu had planned on leaving the tower and staying at an Inn using the absurd amounts of money she had received, but was relieved she had a more convenient alternative. While she was unfamiliar with the currency of the Outside World, she had assumed millions were not money that was easy to come by. However, considering the fact that she did not have the same amount of money in Gensokyo, where she truly needed it, Reimu was not exactly satisfied.

Regardless, as convenient as Heavens Arena was when it came to lodging, Reimu's stomach rumbled in excessive hunger. In truth, she had been so caught up in reaching the higher floors and in her own sleepiness that she had forsaken her hunger and had not eaten for the entire day. Seeing as she found staying solely inside a tall tower to be rather constricting and she did not know if there even was a facility inside that provided food, Reimu was now determined to go outside and find a restaurant before resuming her exploits in the arena.

While that was but a carefree course of action, she was inwardly thinking of the incident she was supposed to solve. Reimu was originally meant to arrive, fight the mastermind and come back victorious, but getting clues on their whereabouts was already as complicated as getting past two hundred floors of a tower by fighting. Though that was straightforward enough for Reimu, she had only wanted to take half a day solving the incident, but she was already on her second day.

Reimu lightly sighed as she left her room and headed for the elevator. A few men walked through the hallway, and they glanced at her the moment they caught her sight. Meanwhile, Reimu was completely uncaring of their presence and pondered on the device that made descending floors so much easier. _I get into a lot of technological places, huh..._ From the Lunar Capital to the Outside World, it seemed as though Reimu had a knack for being in a situation where she could not help but have a prolonged stay in locations that exceeded the bounds of what she had witnessed before. However, Reimu had no deep admiration for the advancements in technology, so she only faced things like an elevator with some awe before regarding them apathetically, as if they were any common device.

Even now, as she boarded the elevator and turned to an attendant in a purple uniform, Reimu said, "Take me to the ground floor." The elevator attendant firmly nodded before pressing one button out of many, all parts of an interface Reimu could barely fathom, let alone learn how to use. Despite that, the elevator was fast and efficient, even if the strange pressure it would inflict on Reimu was unpleasant. In a matter of minutes, Reimu was already on the ground floor, and the elevator attendant was gesturing outside with a smile on her face.

Reimu wordlessly left the elevator and stepped for the exit of Heavens Arena. According to an explanation from a receptionist, Reimu would only be called to fight if she reported to the waiting room of the set of floors, so she assumed she would not suddenly be banned from the arena for leaving once for lunch. Furthermore, now that she was in top condition, Reimu had wanted to see for herself the restaurant Resso had recommended to her while they spoke in the queue. _I knew that would come in handy._ Reimu had memorized only parts of the information Resso had relayed to her, but she was smiling proudly nonetheless from her magnificent memory.

Leaving Heavens Arena behind, Reimu surveyed the streets in search for the landmarks Resso had mentioned while moving forward. However, at the sudden heat Reimu felt on her back, she stopped in her tracks with widened eyes; she recognized the sensation. "Woah, where the heck is _this_ supposed to be?" Reimu sharply turned around, only to see two colorfully-dressed girls, both familiar to her: on in a green dress, her hair only drier version of the color, and one with a purple dress, while her hair was a darker, brown color in contrast. Seeing the awe-struck look of Mai Teireida, the one in green, Reimu assumed she was the source of that voice, though her partner Satono Nishida seemed just as shocked.

Wide eyes surveyed the area before narrowing, complementing a bitter frown. "It doesn't look like Gensokyo at all," Satono commented, her shoulders compressed from the tension she felt in regards to the unknown location. Mai, on the other hand, tapped her foot in excitement for the unexpected turn of events, but a smile did not show on her face due to the residual confusion. "But it feels different from the Outside World, too."

After taking in Mai and Satono's awe, Reimu's eyes were on her surroundings, but that had only served to intensify her anger. With one hand on her waist, Reimu interjected, "Wait a second there." She shot a glare in the general direction of Mai and Satono, who responded with looks of innocent curiosity and confusion. "Why did you have to go and come out from my back? Do you know how much we're standing out right now because of you?!"

Surely enough, some people walking by had stopped to note the situation, having spotted Mai and Satono jumping out from Reimu's back. The backdoor, in fact, was still open and visible, leading to even more people whispering to each other about the oddity in Reimu's condition. Still perplexed by the situation, Satono glanced around, pondering on the issue Reimu seemed to be concerned with. Mai, on the other hand, was quick to close Reimu's backdoor, though she was just as lost as Satono and had little idea of why Reimu was even angry to begin with. "Aren't you supposed to be fighting the mastermind, though?" Mai curiously asked. "What are you even doing?"

Reimu flinched apprehensively at Mai's accusation, having been reminded of her priorities. "W-well, if your master had set up her trap right, that's what I would have done long ago!" Reimu countered, her gestures fierce to the point she managed to stand out more than the two dancers near her. "But right now, I was just about to have lunch before you two interrupted me and ruined everything!"

"Our master did everything correctly," Satono cleanly asserted, though it was clear her mood was soured due to Reimu's affirmations. "If there's anyone at fault here, it must be you."

"Besides, this place is packed with that foreign energy the corpse had. It only makes sense you were transported here," Mai added with a shrug before she stepped towards Satono in order to return to her original position by her side.

"Is your eyesight so bad that you couldn't even find the mastermind?"

"Even after our master up and took you to them in seconds? That's just pitiful. I thought you could do way better than that."

"Our master is so going to be mad at you. Pitiful, indeed."

Faced with Mai and Satono's back-and-forth, combined with the gathering people who were starting to take up devices Reimu had never seen before, Reimu loudly groaned in frustration. "Just shut up and follow me! I don't know why you two are even here, but you're going to stop attracting attention, or else...!" Reimu shouted before turning around and rapidly walking along the rest of the street without bothering to look behind her to check if Mai and Satono were following her.

Meanwhile, Mai playfully smiled. "Oooh, scary..." she remarked and proceeded to tread behind Reimu at her own slower pace while wondering about Reimu's destination. Satono, however, was wearing an expression of worry and confusion as she rushed for Reimu, leaving the small crowd behind. Said crowd had taken some footage of Mai and Satono, but they had gathered no solid evidence for what they had witnessed, and many frowned in disappointment or stared at Reimu, Mai and Satono as they left in wonder and curiosity, pondering on what had occurred.

Despite that, Reimu was still fuming over the event, thinking of the possibility that Mai and Satono had jeopardized her efforts to stay discreet and leaving no trace of her relations with the supernatural. When Satono caught up with her, Reimu had glared in her direction, but Satono was unaffected. Carrying other priorities in mind, Satono instead uttered, "Wait, where are you even taking us?"

"To a restaurant!" Reimu immediately exclaimed, leaving both Mai and Satono in complete confusion.

"Huh?" Mai voiced.

"Why?" Satono questioned.

"Because I'm going to get my long-awaited lunch and I'm not letting your unwanted presence stop me!"

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The trip to the restaurant had taken but a quarter of an hour through streets Reimu faintly remembered traversing before arriving at Heavens Arena. However, only now had she truly noted the landmarks Resso had indicated, such as store signs with flashy designs or iconic posters, which had led Reimu, Mai and Satono to their destination in order to have a belated lunch. Reimu had taken a seat on the tables outside the building proper after waiting for more than half an hour and ordered the most expensive dish in the menu (which she was only able to navigate through the help of a kindly waitress) for herself, and the two girls accompanying her in an especially prideful stance in regards to her current financial situation.

While Mai and Satono had long but finished eating, Reimu was almost done with her second meal: though it was a kind of meat Reimu did not recognize, she was uncaring of that fact due to its flavor alone. Now, Reimu faced Mai, who sat on the opposite side and fiddled with her fork (which Mai learned how to use in the heat of the moment) as she heard Reimu speak while rapidly eating.

"... So I got my guard up because those muscles were no joke, but he was no match for me in the end," Reimu brightly explained, her stance as prideful as it was cheerful; a great contrast to her ardently furious mood when she had faced Mai and Satono previously. "It just goes to show that physical strength is not everything in a real fight. As long as you trip them up and avoid getting hit, you can easily win against needlessly strong people."

"I know that much," Mai vacantly retorted, eyes locked onto her hand attempting to spin the fork only by maneuvering her fingers and guiding it into that motion.

However, Reimu was completely complacent with Mai's clear lack of interest in her conversation, and simply continued on brashly: "I had to pick out a weak spot and make an opening, so I just got him from the back before he could react and made him lose his balance. Then, I got a clean hit on his face right when he was falling!" Reimu held up her fork high, with a portion of meat still stuck into its teeth, as if to demonstrate the swift movement she had executed on the match she had been summarizing. "It served both him and the crowd right for underestimating me!"

At the same time Reimu was exclaiming that, Mai dropped her own fork when a familiar orange color scheme entered her line of sight from behind Reimu, far into the horizon. Mai then stood from her seat, leading to Reimu confusedly frown as she directed the piece of meat to her mouth. When she turned around to follow Mai's gaze, she had shown herself neutral to the arrival of Satono along with Okina, seeing as she had been warned about it beforehand by a departing Satono who had left Mai's side to report the situation to her master. Despite Reimu's easygoing stance, Okina and Satono's expressions exuded tension as she surveyed the surroundings, which caused Mai's mood to fall into anxiety over the cause.

"So, are you finally going to confess you set up your trap wrong?" Reimu questioned as she returned to her original position in her seat after Okina had gotten sufficiently close enough to hear her clearly. Noting that Okina was going to sit right from Reimu, Mai and Satono proceeded to sit in the remaining seats to attentively listen in on the conversation between the two. "You at least made sure not to stand out this time around, but you've caused me nothing but trouble so far. I can't even tell how close I am to the mastermind, if I'm close at all."

Okina took a moment to ponder on Reimu's statement, her expression collected and ominous, lacking in any detail that would allow one to infer her thoughts. "I have to admit I had a hard time believing Nishida's report at first," Okina said, "but it seems like there was a miscalculation on our part. Granted..." Then, as if only ever so slightly apologetic, involuntarily so at that, Okina flashed Reimu a wry smile and continued speaking: "The mistake itself was not my responsibility, but Yukari's. The backdoor I created for you executed its function flawlessly: it brought you to the origin of the foreign power residing in that man's body. However, Yukari and I had assumed this power was a unique trait of the mastermind, hence the plan to bring you to them using that special backdoor."

"And it wasn't?" Reimu plainly asked.

"Judging by the results of your transportation, it appears so. Even if the mastermind's power were stretched over this entire area, you would've been sent directly near the mastermind themself rather than a random location under their influence," Okina explained, "Since you fell from the sky and arrived here, the source of the foreign power is probably not the mastermind, but this world itself."

Reimu blinked, only to look around in shock. However, finding nothing noteworthy in her surroundings, she shifted her attention and stunned expression to Okina. "That weird power is from the Outside World?"

Okina tilted her head back as she confusedly processed Reimu's inquiry. "The Outside World, you say?" Then, she grimaced, having finally reached a conclusion. "It seems you've mistaken your location. Although there are similarities in the landscape, the energy coursing through this area feels completely different from that of Gensokyo or the Outside World. We are in a completely different dimension right now, far away from any one you've ever known. Do you understand?"

Despite her initial confusion and assumption, Reimu's shock had diminished while she was listening to Okina, and her faced held a troubled frown when she turned to the remnants of the meat she had been meaning to finish. "I suppose," Reimu said, though she continued to think of the current location and the Outside World. The more she looked back on otherworldly characteristics inherent of the world, the more plausible Okina's revelation seemed to her. "But does that mean these people aren't human?"

"They're definitely human," Okina promptly responded, "but they don't share the same kind of energy you do. In essence, that foreign power is not very different from our spiritual power; they serve the same purposes, but their properties are different. It wouldn't be surprising to see humans naturally holding the aura you saw in that unconscious man, and it correlates with the rumors. The fact that you were brought here instead of near the mastermind makes it clear that the man had undertaken this power himself, possibly with the help of the mastermind. Wouldn't you say my explanation aligns with your situation?"

"Huh..." Reimu casually considered the circumstances: the mastermind was still on the loose to do as they pleased in Gensokyo; there was no guarantee that the mastermind was in this dimension rather than in Gensokyo because of Okina's trap; and finally, the unconscious man was not carrying the mastermind's power, but the power of this dimension, which he had supposedly developed himself under the mastermind's influence. Faced with such a troublesome, disadvantageous reality, Reimu scowled. "Then I wasted an entire day without getting any closer to the mastermind all because of Yukari's careless assumptions!" Reimu angrily exclaimed, "And here I thought I could use her weird youkai brain to get somewhere with this incident! The next time I see her, I'll give her a piece of my mind, that's for sure!"

"Well, your trip wasn't entirely useless," Okina reassured with her first instance of a confident smile thus far, though it was improving Reimu's morale or disposition. "If not for this plan, we would've never discovered the true nature of the foreign power, or the existence of this dimension, which is probably where the mastermind originally resided. Whether it was intentional or not, your stay in this world has only been beneficial for us." Noting that Reimu's expression was softening as she pondered on Okina's words, even if confusion was still evident in her features, Okina's smile widened, pleased with the change since it showed that she was being attentively listened to. "Besides, there's no guarantee that the mastermind is only one entity, and that they even are solely in Gensokyo in the first place. Considering the mastermind comes from this world, finding leads on them, along with key information on their nature and intent would be even easier than in Gensokyo, where they've likely concealed their otherworldly identity to the humans. If we assume there is more than one mastermind, there's also the possibility of only one member of the group having gone to Gensokyo, while the rest are giving orders from here. Right now, you're in the best position to find them and apprehend them."

Reimu vacantly absorbed the information Okina had cleanly and assertively told to her in an upright, dignified stance that practically conveyed her certainty in her own hypotheses. However, skeptical regardless, Reimu sourly frowned. "You mean that I could still beat up the actual culprits over here? It's not like that's impossible, but I don't know..." Reimu's frown deepened as she narrowed her eyes in deep thought. "There's something off about this whole situation. I feel like I should be in Gensokyo, but I also feel like the mastermind could be here, too. This is really strange..."

Conversely, Okina loosely waved Reimu's concerns away with a single, elegantly risen hand, her smile contrasting with Reimu's pensive frown. "That makes matters even simpler for you, then," Okina said, "You're already here and adapting to this world; why not stay and solve the incident on that end for the time being? It would be a more tangible goal to you than ridding Gensokyo of rumors and searching for a mastermind even I have trouble locating. Since this is the mastermind's home, you might have more luck striking at them while their guard is down, as well."

"True..." Reimu muttered while slowly nodding to herself. Then, her smile began to mirror Okina's, brightened the moods of both. "Sure, I'll stick around for now and see how that goes, but I want a means to go back to Gensokyo by myself. You can put a backdoor or something on me, can't you?" Seemingly carefree now that she had a conclusive goal again, Reimu took to finishing her meal while glancing at Satono and Mai, who observed the surroundings in pure boredom.

Okina, on the other hand, was plainly invested in the conversation. "Of course," Okina proudly responded, "Now that we know this is nowhere near Gensokyo, I couldn't simply leave you stranded here." Unbeknownst to Reimu, who was in the middle of chewing on the last piece of meat that had remained on her plate, Okina had already left the backdoor behind her. "The door itself will be invisible to the naked eye while closed, but you need only reach out for it to return. In turn, you must be very careful of your surroundings: that door can let you into my domain the same way it can let in anyone in this world. Make sure no other unwanted presence can pass through my domain if you want to guarantee Gensokyo's safety."

"You don't have to warn me about something that obvious," Reimu quickly said as she laid the fork down on the plate, which was entirely empty. "Anyway, I've had enough food for now and I want to get to the mastermind as fast as I can, so can you make this quick and leave?" With that, Reimu glanced over the premises and signaled a nearby waitress to come over, only turning back to Okina after confirming the waitress had taken notice of Reimu's careless gesture. "I've got people to take down. I'm struggling for leads here."

"So be it, then," Okina calmly stated before standing from her seat. In unison, Mai and Satono stood as well and positioned themselves next to Okina. "I'm rather busy myself, and I at least know you're alive and well now with certainty. Though, I wasn't expecting any less from you." Sparing Reimu a single glance, Okina stepped away as the waitress Reimu had called headed for her table. "Farewell."

Reimu, too, had only followed Okina with her gaze for the fewest of seconds while thinly frowning. Though the waitress smiled politely at Reimu and called for her attention, she was faintly returned with the same apathetic expression before Reimu was reminded of her current financial status. A smirk surged in Reimu's features, and her carefree, relaxed stance indicated that she had long but brushed off her worries and focused on moving forward, and moving forward alone, with the higher floors of the tower as her goal.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The sky a faint orange, and clouds reflecting a light pink hue marked the afternoon, now was a time Marisa thought appropriate for Reimu to return to her shrine after solving the incident. Her dark figure contrasted with the current colors as she flew for the Hakurei Shrine, nearing the building itself. Kasen had checked up on her in the morning, but Marisa had not told her she was going to leave her house; she had intended not to be followed out of Kasen's concern, and Kasen herself seemed to have her own plans. Though the morning conversation she had been reminiscing displeased her slightly, Marisa's general excitement and curiosity involving Reimu's exploits were enough to keep a smile on her face, especially as she wondered who had been the mastermind, what kind of powers they could use and in what way Reimu had defeated them.

However, when she looked down at the shrine grounds, Marisa spotted an out-of-place, purple hue near the shrine building's entrance. Confusion surged for a brief moment, leading Marisa to immediately lower her broom to the ground so as to better take in the identity of the person standing by. Reimu was not present outside of the shrine, Marisa noted, even though someone seemed to be visiting. While Marisa surveyed the area, she found only fallen cherry blossom petals and the purple figure.

Then, the familiar figure faced upwards, meeting Marisa's gaze. "If it isn't Marisa; I'm quite disappointed, to be honest. I'm expecting someone else at the moment, and you're not her." Marisa could not resist the urge to grimace when she quickly recognized the face of a certain youkai of boundaries, especially as she processed her words and confident, ominous presence. Part of Yukari was within one of her gaps, and she floated from the ground.

"Well, I wasn't expectin' you either," Marisa bitterly retorted as she landed on the ground. "Is Reimu still out solving the incident?"

"Who knows?" Yukari absent-mindedly questioned in a quick fashion, as if she had given Marisa's inquiry little to no thought whatsoever. "She might just be having trouble coming back to the shrine. Either way, whether she arrives or not doesn't really matter now."

"Aren't you waiting for her?"

"Since when would I be doing such a thing? Surely Reimu can return to her shrine without someone welcoming her." Marisa's eye twitched. _What the hell is she even doing here, then...?_ Though, before Marisa could voice that question, Yukari, beyond Marisa's expectations, continued to speak: "Regardless, you look rather pitiful with an injury so noticeable. Did the mastermind ambush you?"

Marisa noted inquisitive eyes were fixated on her cast, but not a drop of concern could be traced from Yukari's plainly curious expression. If taken at face value, it could almost seem innocent, but Marisa knew better than not to think Yukari had ulterior motives, and it was likely she knew that a regular village doctor would not have been able to reproduce the same kind of cast. Whether she intended on bringing that up due to Eirin's nature as a Lunarian, however, was something Marisa did not feel like questioning, leaving the conversation to take its course. "It wasn't the mastermind, but sure," Marisa cautiously offered, "He got me good. You know about Nen, don't ya? The power everyone's been talking about?"

Finally, Yukari faced Marisa directly, staring into her eyes. For reasons unknown, she smiled. "Why, of course," she lightly responded, "If it weren't for that strange power, I wouldn't have to be so alert to the barrier in the first place. It's put a bit of a strain on my sleep schedule so it's admittedly troublesome, but I suppose I had no choice but to consider this an emergency and spread my wings out before Winter." Yukari stretched her arms before crossing her legs, and looked over the surroundings in a seemingly carefree fashion. "Not that I have any wings, but I'm sure you get the idea."

"You sure don't look like there's any emergency going around, though," Marisa retorted, unconvinced. _Then again, it's rare for Yukari to be up and about in the first place,_ Marisa thought, _What made her start moving?_ "Is it just the sleep deprivation that's got you unmotivated?"

"Oh, if only." Yukari then carelessly shrugged, only to add, "It should go without saying for someone my age, but I've no patience to waste my time chasing down naughty children and scold them one by one. However, the fact that they need to learn their lesson still stands, so I don't have much of a choice this time around. Though, do most naughty children ever learn their lesson after _just_ being scolded?" She shook her head, her smile wry. "I never did like babysitting. It's quite a shame Reimu can't take over for me."

"Isn't Reimu takin' care of the incident already? You should just be sleeping your way out of the incident like you always do," Marisa plainly responded. "But now that you're awake and conveniently here, guess I'll ask ya a few things."

"My, my, is this an interrogation?"

"Nope; just curiosity. If you're waltzin' around the Hakurei Shrine right around the time of an incident, it's gotta be for a reason. Besides, Reimu told me somebody was messing with the barrier. So, what're you planning?"

"Such a straightforward question," Yukari remarked, "In the end, you don't even have real proof that I'm planning something." _Guess I should've expected her not to give me a straight answer,_ Marisa thought as her frown deepened in the midst of the dissatisfaction caused by her lack of progress in knowing about the incident. "However, you guessed right; I _am_ plotting something at the moment."

Marisa could not help but flinch from the blunt statement, especially as she felt all of the tension she had pent up within her being released in an overwhelmingly quick moment. "Oh, really?" Marisa flatly said while locking eyes with an amused Yukari, whose smile was unnaturally bright in order to further unsettle Marisa. "What're you plotting, anyway?"

"Surely you know the rumors in the village are active and rampant, especially now that the previous incident died down," Yukari explained, "Even if the mastermind is taken down, these rumors won't simply disappear on their own; not when there are humans who've experienced this Nen power willing to continue spreading their wild, foreign notions."

In an attempt to read in between the lines, Marisa scowled, and, distraught, gulped in face of the main hypothesis her mind had shown her. "Hey, don't tell me you're gonna..." Marisa paused, unable to finish the sentence with a good conscience. On one hand, Marisa would have no choice but to resign to the established rules of Gensokyo. On the other hand, however, Marisa saw no amusement in the dreary scenario.

Meanwhile, Yukari's smiled widened, as if relishing on Marisa's self-imposed anxiety. "I'm only going to play my part, like any human would expect me to." Despite her response, Marisa's expression remained intact, leading Yukari to curiously peer into her gaze. "Why? Did you expect something else?" Yukari then faintly chuckled, while a gloved hand covered her mouth. "You've quite the vivid imagination, Marisa." _Did you read my mind or what?_ or so Marisa wanted to say, but Yukari continued before she could do so: "Anyway, I wouldn't mind satisfying your curiosity, but my evil plan would hardly be as sinister when someone else is aware of the full details, so this is as far as you can get. Well, do look forward to it when it spurs into action."

Yukari winked her way, while Marisa grimaced in return, finding no contentment to Yukari's demeanour. "Can't say your vague phrasing's very good for hypin' me up, though," Marisa wearily remarked after realizing Yukari had been greatly amused at her expense. "Besides, what I'm interested in is Nen and the mastermind who's been spreadin' it all over, not another one of your messed up plans."

"Are you, now? Those are nothing special, in my opinion," Yukari stated in a dismissive fashion, her expression surprisingly neutral beyond its absent-minded edge. Then, in staring into Marisa's eyes, her own narrowed as she seemed to ponder for a brief moment. "After all, one's powers are only as grand as their wielders: no matter how outstanding an ability is, you can never use it to its full potential if your own potential is far too low. The entity we are dealing with right now is but one of many examples of this. The man makes the clothes, as they say."

"...Wasn't it the other way around?"

"I don't fuss over such measly details," Yukari effortlessly countered, completely unfazed by what Marisa had perceived to be a mistake. "Regardless, what do you think of a person who tries to cause a revolution against a powerful, stable majority all by themself?"

Marisa hummed pensively as she searched for an answer. However, at her first mental images, she could not help but bitterly smile. "I can think of someone who's actually done that already, but I wouldn't say she's a 'person'."

"Ah, now that you mention it, a fool like that did exist beforehand," Yukari loosely voiced, mirroring Marisa's expression for a few seconds. "Well, just think of her current situation: it may be bliss for a contrarian like her, but someone who engages in that sort of behavior without being able to see that very situation will be their destination afterwards... Enlighten me: what do you call such a person?"

"A complete idiot, right? That's pretty obvious," Marisa stated in a nonchalant stance and voice, having put little thought into Yukari's question.

In return, Yukari smiled her way. "Then you currently have everything you need to know about the mastermind and the incident. For now, at least."

While Yukari had planned to bring something else up to finish the conversation, especially as she had other business to focus on at the moment, a familiar presence was suddenly felt nearby. Yukari to quickly looked to her right with an expression of faint curiosity which contrasted with her thin frown, originated from the familiarity in the presence she was sensing. Marisa had also planned to say something as a retort to Yukari's vague conclusion, but she, too, was curious, so she followed Yukari's gaze and saw someone she had not thought she would meet very often. "There you are; I've been looking for you," Okina asserted while walking towards Yukari and Marisa in a confident, mildly slow stride. A visible backdoor ingrained in the shrine building faded away at the same time Okina took note of Marisa's unexpected presence in the area, and Okina's eyes widened slightly at the sight. "Oh? I hadn't thought I'd see you two together. What business did you have with Marisa?"

"As a matter of fact, I had no business with Marisa whatsoever," Yukari simply responded.

"And what business's a shady Gensokyo sage got with _another_ shady Gensokyo sage? Are you plottin' whatever it is you're plottin' together?" Marisa asked out of sheer curiosity, though she was inwardly cautious of the intentions of the two. However, either party reacted in a remarkably lax manner in light of Marisa's question, as Okina had no hesitation in speaking.

"You make it sound so much more sinister than it is in reality," Okina remarked. "Believe it or not, this is all for the sake of Gensokyo's wellbeing." Though Okina puffed her chest up in dignified pride, Marisa's frown only expressed that she was heavily unconvinced, especially as she glanced at a perpetually suspicious Yukari.

"Oh, but it _is_ quite sinister," Yukari playfully interjected. "I at least plan on making it as disturbing as inhumanly possible. I am a youkai, after all." _She's sure being more open than usual,_ Marisa inwardly remarked as her eyes narrowed in a flash of doubt. Yukari's smile was light and ominous, and Marisa knew there was more thought put into it than she could fathom. However, she was also sure Yukari would only share a fraction of that to Marisa if prompted, assuming she would be willing to speak honestly at all.

Silence lingered in the area for a few seconds before Okina spoke: "Regardless of Yukari's own plans, I've told you not a single lie: while not in the conventional fashion, we've been trying to solve the current incident in our way. Normally, we'd leave that to someone else, but circumstances forced our hand. In certain ways, the scale of the incident is far too big for a shrine maiden to handle by herself."

"Wait," Marisa immediately uttered, "Ya mean not even Reimu can beat the culprit this time around?"

"Not in the slightest," Yukari said, her words slowly formed comparatively to Marisa's, conveying her calm stance towards the situation. "If anything, the culprit is the least of our problems when it comes to the incident."

"Rather, the state of the Human Village is what most concerns us," Okina added, though she appeared just as composed, and a confident smile hung smoothly on her features. "I'm sure you can figure why that is."

"The rumors, huh..." Marisa grimaced as she momentarily cast her gaze on the ground, pondering on the matter at hand. When she had faced Okina, her expression conveyed slight unease, but her expression itself had softened from the tension it had picked up previously. "Still, isn't it too late to fix the rumors? There're people usin' Nen in the village already. We can't cover up what's in plain sight."

"Can't we?" Yukari absent-mindedly questioned, as if it were only natural to make such an inquiry.

" _Can_ you?" Marisa shot back in an accusatory voice, her eyebrows raised from the rising skepticism.

Yukari glanced at Okina, whose faint smirk was noticeable. "We'll just have to see now, won't we?" Then, she flashed an elegant smile Marisa's way while locking eyes with her. "Though, if it does stop being in plain sight, I imagine you'll have trouble noticing it to begin with."

"Doesn't matter," Marisa cleanly countered after seeing almost no meaning to her elusive words. "Rather not notice than keep being reminded of the time I got beaten up by some random guy from the village."

"I presume that's the cause of your injury?" Okina voiced, but she expected no response from Marisa. "Despite your own admission, I doubt a 'random' human would've been able to defeat you so soundly. He was a Nen user, wasn't he? Did he tell you anything about the mastermind?"

"He told me a lotta stuff," Marisa plainly said, "but not about whoever's pullin' the strings. Still, I did hear the Nen-users are all in one group, so the leader's gotta be the mastermind. If I were Reimu, I'd've been starting my search there. Sounds like it'd be too easy a place, but they can't not show up to their own group ever."

"Actually, it's likely they've never physically appeared in front of the villagers before." The seemingly calm, casual voice coming from Okina had Marisa scratch her head in slight confusion, especially in regards to a piece of information so strange. "They're able to possess people. The supposed leader of the group was probably nothing more than a human under their control."

"Really?!" Marisa asked, only to receive an immediate response in the form of a nod from Okina. Then, she frowned, her mind drifting away from the revelation and towards other matters, instead. "Does Reimu know that, though?"

"She did fight a human possessed by the mastermind," Yukari said, "so she should have assumed that much already."

After a moment of processing that such an event occurred without Reimu ever telling her about it, Marisa shrugged, willing to let the matter slide. "Guess that's why she's taking so long to come back. Not much you can do without any leads." _Still, Reimu would at least take a break for dinner. By now, she should be flyin' back to the shrine,_ Marisa thought as she grimaced, displeased at the fact that she cannot assuredly fathom Reimu's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Okina had shifted her gaze to Yukari, ominously locking eyes with her. As if Okina had communicated with her in some way, Yukari lightly chuckled before speaking up: "Then I suppose you're just as much in need of leads as Reimu. Otherwise, you can't do a thing, no? You may gather as many as you'd like."

While Okina's stance notably relaxed, Marisa was only focused on Yukari and failed to notice. "What, ya think I'm up for solvin' the incident like this? Reimu's the one who should be getting those leads you're teasing me with," Marisa affirmed in a clear voice, loud enough to sound perhaps a tad too defensive; she blamed Yukari for that, since she acted usually as though she was toying with her. Regardless, with a sheepish smile, Marisa looked to the side, faintly spotting a smiling Okina while considering her own mistake in refusing the intake of information. "I can still listen if you know anything, though. You could always just tell me."

"Well, it just so happens I gathered some information of my own along with Reimu," Okina interjected, garnering Marisa's attention almost immediately, "leading me to have some business with Yukari. However, since you're so curious about Reimu, I can let you know now that you're here."

"You've been with Reimu this whole time?" Mildly surprised, Marisa's widened eyes locked onto Okina expectantly, awaiting any sort of tale regarding Reimu's exploits and in what way Okina managed to team up with her.

"Not exactly," Okina promptly responded, breaking the mental image effortlessly and dispeling any sense of awe Marisa previously held. "I devised a way for Reimu to reach the mastermind instantly, and ejected her through a backdoor."

"Oh, that's pretty convenient," Marisa remarked as though taking in any normal fact. "But if she got to the mastermind so fast, why's she not back yet?"

"We'd made an oversight." Okina looked towards Yukari, who raised an eyebrow in reaction to the deliberate gesture. "While the door was set to transport Reimu to the origin of the foreign power, we had assumed it was a power exclusive to the mastermind, therefore bringing Reimu to them immediately. Unfortunately, this was not the case: Nen is a power originated from an entirely different dimension."

"Huh?" Marisa blinked, barely able to voice her shock.

Simultaneously, Yukari's smile had faded, leaving way for an entirely matter-of-fact stance. "A different _dimension_?" Yukari questioned, as if for the sake of confirmation only, "Then Reimu failed to get to the mastermind and got stranded in some random otherworldly location all this time?" Seeing no change in Okina's expression, however, Yukari found it clear that she was beyond serious. Her mind raced with thought that very moment, but Yukari managed a smile, though a sly, crooked one. "And here I'd thought I could get both sides of this incident solved swiftly. It seems this particular child likes playing hide and seek."

"Well, we may have failed to find the mastermind, but finding their world of origin is convenient in its own right," Okina confidently stated, "Not only will we be collecting information about Nen under the mastermind's nose, but we can also reach whatever accomplices they may have and discover the method used to get to Gensokyo; all of these are much more important than the mastermind's whereabouts."

"I can tell that myself, why thank you very much," Yukari countered while locking eyes with Okina for a moment, animosity spreading through the area until Yukari decided to look towards the trees outlining the outskirts of the Hakurei Shrine, her expression almost far too carefree for the information she had stomached. "Though Reimu's current situation changes things somewhat for me, this is a more than welcome change as far as I'm concerned. It certainly beats a conclusion as boring as 'Reimu defeated the mastermind and went home quietly in the evening'. Wouldn't you think so?"

In light of Yukari's demeanor, which was just as she had remembered it, Okina suppressed a sigh. Her eyes closed, she instead proceeded to smile as she considered her hypothesis and her hypothesis alone. "It appears we're on the same page, then."

"Wait." Marisa took a step forward, as if to cut through the tension. Her expression was a serious frown, her gaze unwavering. She was mainly focused on Okina, who had relayed the information on Reimu. "Just to make sure... Reimu's safe and sound, right?"

Okina faced her with curiosity at first, only to offer her the same smile she had previously, confident and composed. "Rest assured," Okina responded, "Reimu is unharmed and acting to solve the incident in her own way. She's currently residing in a human city of that world and searching for leads."

"A whole city..." Marisa muttered as she trembled almost frantically, her eyes wide but unfocused, almost eerily so. "And it's a world far away from here... Right? Completely different from Gensokyo, right...?"

"I'd say it more closely resembles the Outside World than Gensokyo," Okina stated before frowning in light Marisa's strange disposition. "But don't be mistaken: it's a completely different world, holding completely different energies foreign to us. Reimu is also aware of this, so she must be taking the necessary precautions. Considering there's also a low chance of the mastermind being there, you'd do well to rest assured on that end, too."

Despite herself, Marisa took a deep breath. "I know it might sound reckless and all, but..." However, still unable to contain her surging emotions, Marisa's eyes sparkled wide as she reflexively broke into a grin. "You _gotta_ take me to where Reimu is!" Marisa took Okina's hands, and exclaimed, "C'mon! It's a whole new civilization, right?! Just imagine the kinda stuff you can find over there!"

"You..." Okina blankly paused simply to process the extent of Marisa's excitement while freeing her hands from Marisa's grasp. "Do realize Reimu is there to solve the incident, right? It's not like that world's free of danger or anything," she stated in an uncharacteristically awkward fashion, her normal speech having somewhat deteriorated in elegance momentarily, "Weren't you saying you couldn't do that in your condition?"

"I can't solve the incident, but no broken arm's stoppin' me from something as interesting as this!" Marisa fiercely countered, her gaze resolute. "Besides, this is _Reimu_ we're talkin' about! Does she look like she'll bring me any souvenirs? Either I go there myself, or I'll never get my hands on that dimension's stuff again; it's a one-time chance for me! You just GOTTA let me go!"

Hearing Yukari chuckle from their side, Okina and Marisa shifted their attention to her. "Isn't this simply a pitiful sight; why not let her go accompany Reimu if she so wishes? Having one more person explore a vast world seems far from a disadvantage, especially considering Marisa was injured by a random human villager."

Marisa nodded along Yukari's words in a quick, eager fashion, while Yukari beamed her way, her hand near mouth as if preparing for another chuckle."I don't get what she's saying there but she's right," Marisa asserted with a serious expression, as if that would reinforce her opinion, "Letting me go wouldn't cause ya any trouble at all. Not at all."

Okina grimaced, albeit not in reaction to Marisa's insistence. _I see... So Marisa's attack was but a part of the mastermind's plans, is that what you mean?_ Okina thought as her gaze was directed to Yukari almost reflexively. She seemed to be in a good mood, but Okina was certain that where more underneath that smile than she was letting on, especially when it came to her decision of supporting Marisa. _They'd wanted to immobilize her because of her closer ties to the Human Village and skill at solving incidents, but by making her into a spy for their world of residence when they'd only accounted for Reimu to act, we would be completely subverting their expectations; we'd be deploying a true undercover spy, while leaving Reimu as a decoy...!_ Okina huffed, condescendingly so. _It seems you haven't changed at all, Yukari..._ Okina looked towards Marisa, whose radiant gaze and disposition were blind to whatever dark thoughts permeated Okina's mind, perhaps to a worrying degree in Okina's perspective, considering she was familiar with Yukari. "Well, if so, then I suppose it wouldn't hurt to bring you to Reimu's side," Okina carefully uttered while glancing at Yukari, who gave her no particular reaction; it appeared she approved of Okina's actions. "However, you should refrain from fighting until your arm is healed again. Are we clear?"

Marisa stared at Okina in awe for a few seconds, soaking in how fast Okina had complied with her wishes. Regardless, uncaring of the reasons no matter how suspicious, Marisa grinned. "Crystal clear! I just gotta leave all the dirty work to Reimu, anyway," she said with a shrug short-lived in comparison to Marisa's cheerful and convicted demeanor. "So, how do we go there? We're going right now, aren't we? Well, after I grab some stuff from home, but still!"

As if Marisa's mood were somehow contagious, Okina smiled back at her, even despite her slight concern for Marisa's wellbeing. "Thankfully, Reimu happens to be well-off in that world," Okina said, "so taking you there immediately would cause you little problems, as well. I've no more business with Yukari either; let's simply go."

"That's the spirit!" Marisa cheerfully exclaimed. Then, when a door faintly surged, barely visible, by Okina's side, Marisa turned to Yukari. "Well, see ya! If Kasen asks for me, tell her to stop being such a worrywart!" Without hesitation, Marisa leaped into the backdoor, leaving Okina alone with Yukari, who had waved at her (though Marisa had failed to notice that in her eagerness).

 _Kasen, huh..._ Okina thought, reminiscing on the name. She locked eyes with Yukari, only to smirk. "Make sure you take care of this side of the incident smoothly. Though, I doubt things will go so poorly for you. I'm more worried for the wellbeing of the mastermind, if anything. Regardless, I'll have you know that the young man you brought me is still in my abode. If I consider anything relevant enough to report on that end, we'll surely see more of each other, for better or worse," Okina explained in a clean, calm fashion, as if affording no one's denial of her words. Then, she turned around, in the direction of the backdoor. "Farewell for now, Yukari."

With that, Okina entered the backdoor, which disappeared from sight afterwards. Yukari gazed at the former location of that backdoor for a moment, only to sigh. "It certainly took them long enough to leave," Yukari said, "I almost thought they'd stay for her arrival." Then, shifting her gaze to the horizon, where the stairway for the Hakurei Shrine commenced, she smiled. "Thankfully, my afternoon has just started, and luck is on my side." _I was expecting to bore myself to sleep with my current waiting game, but things are looking up for me. I'd say this turn of events calls for a change of plans, no? Let's have my undercover agent take things calmly and slowly for her first mission._

The setting Sun cast a shadow on an approaching figure, though Yukari was still able to immediately recognize the girl ascending the shrine's stairs. Yukari's smile stretched wider at the sight of an awkward-seeming Kosuzu, glancing around as if she were unsure of what to expect. Laying eyes on Yukari, she stepped towards her. "Sorry I'm late! I had a few things I needed to sort out in the shop, and I took longer than expected..."

"Oh, it's alright," Yukari said in a soft, calming voice that contrasted with her current expression, almost ominously so. "I didn't wait that long." Yukari gracefully fell from her gap and stood on the ground before pointing to the shrine building. The gap, now behind her, simply closed itself in a swift fashion, leaving Kosuzu with little time to ponder on how sinister the eyes filling the dark gap had appeared to her.

However, the moment Yukari's gaze was upon her again, Kosuzu found herself forgetting about such trivial thoughts. "Now, shall we head inside?" Yukari offered. "We have much to talk about."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The stars in the night sky were few and far in between comparatively to Gensokyo. When Marisa finally got to gaze at them through the needlessly big window of Reimu's room in Heavens Arena, she could not help but notice that along with the multitude of lights emanating from buildings in the horizon. Truly, she had been reminded of the Outside World, or the short time she had been in it; had Okina not assured her otherwise, Marisa would have believed it to be the Outside. While Marisa had been impressed, she had only afforded to feel that way now that Reimu was pondering over her explanation of the circumstances that led her injured self to be transported from a backdoor into an entirely different world. During that moment, Marisa had been able to look to the side, towards the scenery, and realize the vastness of the sights she could now explore.

However, she was not able to enjoy it for long. "Well, I guess I now know why you just wound up here all of a sudden..." Reimu vacantly said, as if the matter had little importance. Even so, she crossed her arms at the conclusion she had taken, frowning Marisa's way. "But still, you better have your own backdoor so you can get back because I'm not about to become someone's transportation device. You're lucky I was exiting my last match and this isn't the Outside World or else I'd be giving you Hell right now because of that sudden appearance of yours. People over here freak out over this stuff, you know? I don't want to get into any unnecessary trouble."

Reluctantly, Marisa set her eyes back towards Reimu's direction again so as to respond to her. "If it makes ya feel an better, I do have my own backdoor. I can just be my own transportation device instead."

"Well, that _is_ one less worry off of my list," Reimu stated, "but in the end, you only came here to for fun, right? You can explore this place or whatever, but don't stray too far away from me and get lost all on your own; keep your exploring close to this weird tower for now. Don't cause me any trouble either. You're injured so I don't want to see you trying to beat up anyone without me looking."

Marisa grimaced. "What are you, my mom?"

"It's not my fault you decided to become my freeloader while you're all injured," Reimu countered before pointing at Marisa accusingly, while Marisa stared at Reimu's index finger dangerously near her face with curious eyes. "If I've got to make sure you don't die out of nowhere, give you money so you don't starve to death, lend you my room so you have a roof to sleep under and earn our income because I'm the only one who can safely fight right now, I might as well be your mother. And I don't like that one bit! I'm trying to solve the incident here!"

... Unable to argue against Reimu on that front, Marisa apprehensively glanced to the side as she tried to come up with a way to change the subject, only to inquire, "By the way, how's that going? Got any new leads on the mastermind?"

Against Marisa's expectations, Reimu's expression only further darkened and contorted in a display of ardent anger. "Ugh, not even one! I don't even know if I'm getting any closer to finding any, but I don't have anything to go off of in the first place! It's honestly getting on my nerves! Couldn't I have ended up somewhere more blatantly related to the incident?!"

Feeling the intensity of Reimu's frustration seeping out of her every word, Marisa could not help but apologetically smile. "Uh, well. Sorry about that," she awkwardly uttered while scratching her head with her available arm. Then, recalling the strange location she was in and the fact that Reimu somehow had her own room, Marisa frowned in slight confusion. "But, speaking of that, what are you even doing here?"

"Huh? What else could it be? I'm trying to get a lead on the incident," Reimu effortlessly responded, her voice intimidating and indignant in tone. "Apparently, that power the mastermind introduced isn't common knowledge over here. I'm guessing not just anyone can use it, so when I asked about where strong people with weird powers were, I was pointed to this tower."

"Oh yeah, I've been wondering about that, too," Marisa said as she looked around Reimu's room, its light colours blending into the yellow lighting. "What the hell even is this place? I didn't believe it when the woman in that elevator thing said we were over a hundred floors up but now that I'm looking out the window, this building's freakin' tall no matter how I see it."

"It has over two hundred floors or something," Reimu dismissively uttered, uncaring of the fact she had brought up. "But what matters is the people in here." Now invested in the topic, however, Reimu's gaze was remarkably clear as it locked onto Marisa, who listened in nonchalantly while taking in the television across the massive bed. "To put it simply, this tower is like a huge set of fighting rings where you can fight for money, and the more you win, the higher up you go to fight stronger people. So, from what I heard, the people in the 200th floor are the truly strong opponents, and they all use abilities nobody can understand. Some of the ones described to me matched the mastermind's to a T; they've got to be using that foreign power."

"Doesn't mean they're tied to the mastermind," Marisa said without giving Reimu's words much thought, instead focusing on the fact that the floor is overwhelmingly shiny, showing even her own faint reflection. Reimu did note Marisa's general lack of attention, but was unnaffected, especially since Marisa appeared to contribute significantly to the conversation regardless. With a shrug, Marisa continued: "But I guess it's worth a shot when there's nothing else we can go off of."

"Right?" Troubled, Reimu sighed, no longer able to find enough energy to shout in rage over the ordeal. "My intuition's usually good at getting me out of these kinds of situations, but I don't know, I've been having mixed feelings about this whole thing..."

"Maybe the scale's too big." Marisa stared into the closet as she said that, finding it taller than necessary. Leaning said closet was Reimu's Purification Rod, which, to Marisa's memory, did not use to be so needlessly long, as well. However, it now managed to take up more than half of the closet's height, and the closet extended as far as the ceiling.

"Was my intuition ever about scale?" Reimu promptly retorted. "Well, either way, I'm not about to give up on this incident over something like that, so I've got to make the most out of my stay here and at least get some sort of a lead. There's a higher chance the mastermind is in Gensokyo, but there could always be accomplices over here giving them orders or helping them out. If they really exist, I'll have to find them, no matter what!"

In her effort to find other equipment from Reimu, Marisa spotted stacks of red paper charms lined up on the nightstand nearby; she assumed the needless were in the drawer. "Good luck with that," Marisa apathetically voiced, "I'll just be takin' it easy in this weird city." Reminding herself of the city, Marisa directed her gaze to the window again, practically counting the lights she could see from it.

Meanwhile, Reimu glared her way, mildly envious of Marisa's carefree stance, but her voice was just as neutral when she uttered, "Is that so...?"

"Oh, but now that I think about it, I'm gonna be stayin' here, right?" Marisa asked before looking down at the bed she was sitting on. "Who's gonna sleep where?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're sleeping on the floor." As if to demonstrate the exact spot Marisa would lay down on for the night, Reimu pointed at the area in front of the nightstand, next to the bed. To Marisa, it seemed almost as though Reimu was already envisioning the precise sheets she would be covered with and with what resentful expression she would be oggling the extremely wide bed beside her, much to her dismay. "It's what you get for being a freeloader."

"You'd make an injured person sleep on the floor, Reimu?" So came the desperate attempt at an argument that would dispel the prospect, coupled with a wry smile and a judging gaze.

Fortunately for Marisa and her attempt, Reimu flinched, as if the sudden, brief rush of sympathy stung at her. Regardless, displeased, she frowned, but her expression had softened considerably after she pondered on Marisa's words. "Well, I'm the one who'll be doing the hard work over here, so I'd at least want a comfortable bed to sleep in," Reimu said, "Though, if you're that desperate for a bed, we could always share." She shrugged at the thought. "I'd rent you a room or something, but checking up on you away from the tower every single day sounds like a huge pain and only fighters can have a room of their own over here."

"... Could be my imagination here, but you're talking like you're loaded," Marisa remarked in confusion and slight awe.

"I _am_ loaded," Reimu neatly responded in a carefree voice. "I'm honestly so rich from all the fighting I've been doing that I don't even know what to do with all this otherworldly money."

Marisa's eyes widened in shock. "Woah, is the world gonna end?" She looked over Reimu up and down, as if to verify she was talking to the real Reimu instead of any impostor. "You're rich for once."

Though Marisa knew that would tick Reimu off in some way, she had not noticed Reimu's hand trembling while assuming a position similar to when she would grab her weapon. However, she did see Reimu scowling, and the anticipation of her reaction warranted a smile from Marisa. "Keep that up and I won't share any fraction whatsoever of my riches with you, you can be sure of that!"

Marisa ended up chuckling, and Reimu was forced to process the fact that Marisa did not mean her words and held no malice for them. She sighed in order to avoid laughing along with Marisa, and her stance relaxed considerably afterwards, especially when finding that her anger had subsided so quickly (though it was nothing unusual for Reimu). Meanwhile, Marisa had shifted her gaze back to the window once more before saying, "Still, you're right about one thing: now that we're here, we gotta make the most out of it." Unbeknownst to her, Reimu was also directing her attention to the night sky, something she had only now, after the turmoil of constant fighting in a world unknown to her, thought to calmly focus on, as perhaps a true break from her hectic situation.

"Yeah..." Reimu smiled. "That's the plan."

For a few moments, Reimu and Marisa simply stood in silence to stare at the foreign sky, carving the sight into their memory.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Finally done, holy shit! I have to admit I had some difficulties getting this chapter done in comparison to the others. This isn't because of writer's block, but because the plans for the chapter would just keep changing. At first I thought to include Satono and Mai again, mostly since I wanted to actually do them justice and have them talk in this story. But I'd also planned a scene with Yukari and Okina talking in the beginning, only to realize it was unnecessary and contrived. Naturally, I removed it in favor of a calmer scene that would establish how Reimu's doing: the beginning at least, since it's just narration, feels like it's more slow of a start, which I thought would ease you into the chapter better. Planning how Reimu would talk to Satono and Mai was on-the-spot, to be honest; I went with the flow and then Okina showed up in the other scene. I'm not sure if I was even planning on having Reimu talk to Okina at first, but she does here, I suppose.

The scenes with Yukari were also completely changed from the initial concepts. At first it was just Yukari and Marisa, then it evolved to Yukari, Marisa and Okina so as to segway into a full on scene between Yukari and Kosuzu talking. However, as I thought about it... You didn't need to see that scene. I actually have the conversation between Yukari and Kosuzu written down (just a very rough draft, though), but I felt like it would be more engaging later on if I omitted it from the story. Guess you'll just have to find out where this whole Yukari and Kosuzu thing leads to later, hahaha. The Reimu and Marisa scene was originally gonna have Yukari in it, but that didn't make sense according to the plot, so I took Yukari out; I think I also had plans to include Okina, but that was also unnecessary so I cut _her_ out. Besides, most of all, I just wanted to write Reimu and Marisa interacting; somebody else joining wouldn't make for the exact same dynamic.

If I had to name the scenes that most stumped me, they would be the one where Reimu's talking to Okina and the one where Marisa, Yukari and Okina are talking. I think it's because of having to watch out for the dialogue itself: I don't want things to get too boring, you know? This chapter was rather dialogue-heavy in general, but it was necessary set-up to introduce the fact that it won't just be Reimu interacting with the other world. Now Marisa's another main character! Naturally, this chapter had way more purposes than that, but the big thing to me is Marisa getting to the other side lol. Another thing is Okina's characterization: I just really don't want to screw it up. I'd say Okina is taking this incident seriously, which is why she's being more composed. I said Okina was like a combination of Kanako and Miko, but Okina has a bunch of core differences. Okina's kind of an awkward character, to be honest: at least, she responds awkwardly to things in the game at various points; she can also be surprisingly nonchalant despite her imposing nature. There's a duality between her godly self and her more casual self, to be honest, and it's not at all like Miko's casual self, because Miko's more on the joking side than pure neutrality (though Okina has a joking side too). On the other hand, Kanako is very practical and kind of down-to-earth, while Okina's more introspective and puts herself above others. Not that Kanako doesn't put herself above others, but it's different in the sense that Kanako is more interested in being respected as a god and getting faith, while Okina sees her existence as something you respect by default. I'm actually trying really hard to balance the various facets of Okina so as to make her in-character, and I hope I'm succeeding!

Either way, Satono and Mai, though. They're hard to nail. Well, Satono's the more cautious, but overbearing one, while Mai's the more adventurous, hands-on one. Mai's clumsy but quick to act; Satono's cautious but overconfident. I tried reflecting this a lot in their actions and dialogue. I really wanted Reimu to stop thinking she's in the Outside World early on since it wouldn't do much good if I prolonged the misunderstanding, so I was raring to write these scenes at first but I stumbled a lot in writing them out ;_; Reimu's much simpler to write in comparison. Anyway, a lot of what Okina's been doing is telling information to characters; it just so happens she's in a very good position for this sort of support role. Still, I've been trying to make it more interesting and not unwarranted, seeing as even the characters need to get informed, and well, I have to admit this plot will get kind of complex to keep track of in some parts. Others will be simple, but you know. This story has been starting slow for a reason.

As I said before, I make quite an effort to give character voices to each character, especially since they all talk differently in the original Japanese and the translations also try their best at this; I wouldn't want to fail them. I kind treat my dialogue writing of Touhou like a localization: I imagine more or less what they'd be saying originally and write it in a way that seems natural in English. Hopefully. I don't like going overboard with Marisa's character voice, to be honest: Marisa's way of speaking is more boyish than with other characters, but she's not that rough 'round them edges, you know what I mean? Her way of speaking isn't that super special or super rough to warrant me making her character voice very extreme. Meanwhile, Reimu's character voice is the simplest lol Though I try making the words themselves convey emotion or a sort of casual or snappy tone that's not unrefined, but not especially elegant either. Meanwhile, with Okina, I try making it sound commanding and imposing; proud and overbearing; informal but not especially rude; kind of old at rare points. I don't want Okina to sound formal, for example, because she really isn't in any instance of the game, and that's the part I struggle with the most about Okina because she has a really feminine and casual way of speaking and a more commanding way of speaking as well.

But putting that aside, I've told you before I have fun with Yukari, but man, sometimes I go with the flow too much and have to stop myself before I go overboard. Yukari isn't actually very vague when she's talking: it's more that, when she is talking, she is talking five steps ahead of you from a different angle you don't think about. The way Yukari sees things is vastly different from how other people do, and I try to reflect that in the way she faces situations. Also, Yukari is very self-confident; she knows she's hot shit. I really love writing her dialogue in general, but writing her dialogue between just Okina and after Okina left and Kosuzu showed up was especially great. I just really felt it there. But anyway, Marisa was also really fun to write by the end of that scene. Like, Marisa is usually insensitive, straightforward, casual, but she also has moments where she's really bright and excited and motivated; I wanted to write something a little like that out of Marisa. I mean, it's a whole civilization and Marisa is way curious; of course she'd be excited.

She did really good in her scene with Reimu, too. Though, after so much time of me writing Okina and Marisa and Yukari, writing Reimu again felt super refreshing and the scene just flowed from my mind to the chapter really fast in comparison. I was going to end it on a humorous note at first but it felt anticlimatic so I did something different. I felt like it would have some meaning considering the start of the chapter, the rest of the story, themes, etc... So I don't regret that at all. It was a good way to get the chapter done with. Now, I just gotta contain my excitement for the next one. Look forward to that?


	6. Chapter 5

**First Words:**

* * *

Not much to report right now, but for those wondering about what exactly I'm following when it comes to Hunter x Hunter, my main basis is the manga, but I'll also be taking things from the anime as I see fit. As for Touhou, you can all tell this is after Touhou 16, so stuff that happened even in Touhou 15.5 should _more or less_ apply. Well, I'll try to make things allign accordingly, but I also just finished the whole game as of the first time I went to edit this chapter and was writing this story way before Touhou 15.5 was out so, uh, in the event I screw something up, scenes in the already out chapters will probably be edited around at times to fix my mistakes or misconceptions. Speaking of, Touhou 15.5 is awesome story-wise as expected, but I'm still kinda processing the whole thing characterization-wise for studying purposes and don't know whether to be happy or cry on the inside, hahaha.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Predetermined Turnabout of the Journey's Course**

* * *

The streets near Heavens Arena were crowded with so many different kinds of people even Marisa could not help but be overwhelmed by all the sights she could catch in one single glance. The streets and buildings were similarly foreign to her, and Marisa would find herself staring at the flashiest looking establishments on the streets, all the while making sure not to lose the tower Reimu was located in from sight. Thankfully, Heavens Arena was a tall building, and even as Marisa continued to walk on in pure interest, she could still see it from afar without a hassle. Her eyes were bright with excitement, her right hand reaching out for the pocket where she had stored the money Reimu had given to her. _I've been spendin' it however and there's still plenty to spare,_ Marisa thought, _Guess that tower's no joke if you wanna be loaded._

Marisa had been searching for a spot to simply sit down and observe her surroundings thoroughly, but so far, she had only stopped by shops and tried varying kinds of food, most of them sweets and similarly unhealthy snacks. Assuming a location that would enable her to observe her surroundings and sit down was popular among the residents of the city, Marisa had been following the paths most packed with pedestrians so far, but she was having no luck reaching her objective. She considered sitting on the benches scattered on the streets, but figured they did not give her an appropriate view from which to take in the completely different environment. While she stared at a wooden bench nearby for a moment, she then turned the other way and headed for her right entirely out of a whim, now in search of something that would count as a souvenir to bring home.

However, her sightseeing had been quickly brought to halt by the sudden sensation of someone tugging at her sleeve. "Huh?" Marisa faced the direction she had assumed the perpetrator would be at and, to her surprise, she had actually found someone standing unnaturally close to her. Taking a step back from the awkwardness of the distance, Marisa frowned as she took in the mysterious young man before her. "Ya need somethin' from me?" _Normally there's nobody behind you and it's just your imagination but what do you know: somebody's right here._

The young man seemed disconcerted and distraught, his gaze in Marisa's direction needlessly intense. His short stature and odd choice of light green clothing, consisting of thick robes covering him entirely had, however, led Marisa to feel not the slightest bit intimidated by his appearance. Instead, from his disheveled hair and pale skin, Marisa wondered if he had just woken up from bed. "When I look at you..." he muttered in a cautious, slowed voice, "I see a vision..."

"Huh..." Marisa vacantly regarded the young man, unsure of what from that sentence constituted as his business with her. With a casual wave of her hand, she turned around while remarking, "Hope it's a good one." However, before she could begin to walk away, her sleeve was tugged at again.

"Aren't you curious...?" the young man asked as he tightened his grasp on her sleeve. Marisa resisted the urge to flinch when she realized the strange sensation from beyond her white shirt was from the young man's fingers, and noted that her only arm was currently being apprehended by the young man. Considering the weight of the white plastic bag she was carrying, Marisa's arm already trembled from the instability of both pressuring forces acting at the same time. "Whenever the visions come to me, I share them free of charge. I can show you a glimpse of your future, if you want." In a flash, however, the words 'free of charge' garnered her full attention, and she shook his grip off of her sleeve so as to turn around and address the mysterious young man.

"You a fortune-teller or something?" While Marisa frowned, her eyes were seemingly sparkling with curiosity, and the young man was quick to see that change in her demeanor. He earnestly nodded in response to Marisa's inquiry, leading her to uttter, "Oh, now I get your attitude." _Kinda; just guessing it's culture shock._ "I thought you were just a loon back there; sorry." Marisa bashfully glanced to the side, her smile apologetic. "Still, I never got my fortune told over here, so I _am_ curious how it differs and all that. I could pay you, you know? I got money to spare."

Finally, the young man gently smiled and lowered his hand from near Marisa. He seemed to be regaining his composure, taking a deep breath for good measure. "It's quite alright," he said, "Your reaction is nothing unusual. Still, you, too, seem far from the usual, as well."

Marisa glanced around, as if to search for a reference as to what the norm would be. Then, she took a quick look through herself, and absent-mindedly nodded. "Well, I'm a foreigner, so that makes sense," Marisa responded as she scrutinized the young man just as offhandedly. _Not that this guy's any normal either, but what do I know?_ "By the way, weren't you having a vision or somethin'?"

"I've seen it already," was the young man's prompt answer, delivered in such a matter-of-fact fashion that Marisa could not help but blink awkwardly before truly processing the actual words that had come from the man.

Marisa ultimately frowned, unable to express admiration of satisfaction from the revelation. "That was fast," she remarked, almost as though disappointed. "I was thinkin' you'd take me to some weird tent and go check on your crystal ball before you'd tell me my future." _Now that would've been real neat to end my sightseein' on._

The young man lightly shook his head, unfazed by Marisa's mild show of dejection. "Visions that come to me naturally don't need such preparations," he explained, "Your presence alone was enough to make me see a glimpse of your future."

"Didn't know I was that inspiring," Marisa plainly stated, pondering on how to take the young man's words when she would have much preferred being exposed to the fortune-teller's lair, whatever it happened to truly look like. However, concluding that there were no such hopes of that, she ended up shrugging the train of thought off and smiling, her curiosity over other matters taking over. "So, what's the vision? Is it any good? I'm not in for bad news on my vacation, by the way; I wanna catch all these local snacks and trinkets on a good conscience."

"Ah, so you're a _tourist_ right now," he uttered while locking eyes with Marisa, "I see, I see." Something about the way his eyes glinted with crooked interested warranted some apprehension from Marisa, who glanced around the area as if to avoid the gaze. She was near a dark alley, with people walking onward next to her on a seemingly wide concrete path. Because of her proximity to the alley, she was hardly in the middle of the passing citizens, but she considered the oddity of being stopped for fortune-telling in the middle of a crowded street. _Wonder if it's just a scam after all..._ "Your future lies near..." The young man paused in his words, as if overwhelmed.

The consequent silence garnered Marisa's attention, so she shifted her focus to him again. However, her eyes then widened from complete shock as her heartbeat boomed loudly and rapidly in the forefront of her mind. She jumped away from the young man, in the direction of the darkness of the alley. Her stance was tense and defensive, as though ready for a fight, but the young man was somehow unaffected, his gaze hollow and unfocused. Even so, Marisa was solely reacting to what she had sensed leaking out from the young man like water vapour, sparking memories of her last battle. "You...!" _That's Nen, no doubt about it...!_ She scowled while scanning the young man, but, while the familiar foreign energy was surely palpable, he did not seem to be moving. _Isn't he going to attack...?_

 **"Your closest friend..."** the young man finally muttered, continuing from his previous sentence. **"An unexpected meeting will befall your closest friend, which will in turn affect the course of your future significantly..."** Marisa took a step back when he turned to face her, her cautious form darkened by the alley's shadows. **"But beware... The scent of blood draws near the one your friend will meet..."**

"Who the hell are you?" Marisa asked in a low, threatening voice, "What did you do just now?" She glanced towards her occupied arm before setting her sights up to the sky, as if to plan her escape from the worst case scenario. Unfortunately, Marisa had not brought her broom along with her, so she had no certain means of escape from the young man if he were to lunge at her if not to perhaps use her bag of snacks as a distraction and make a run for it. Naturally, that was far from what Marisa truly wanted to do out of her recent possessions, but her growing anxiety had her seriously considering the possibility. However, to her surprise, the energy that had been leaking from the young man quickly dissipated, and his expression contorted in light confusion when he pondered on her questions.

"Me?" He tilted his head to the side, perplexed. "I merely told your future. And as you'd guessed before, I am a fortune-teller," he stated with a hint of pride, but he could not bring himself to continue with that emotion in face of Marisa's piercing glare in his direction. Troubled, his hand wrapped around the back of his neck as an instinctive pose while he worryingly regarded the young lady in front of him. "Did I do anything strange? If so, I do apologize." He stepped forward in order to approach Marisa, who stepped back to maintain the distance in quick response.

"You mean you didn't notice the energy leakin' outta you?" Marisa rapidly questioned. Had her arm been available, she would have pointed his way accusingly, but it continued to sag and sway under the weight of her snacks as she continued to back away from the approaching young man, who, frustratingly enough, did not seem to be giving up on his pursuit. "Don't play dumb. You were using Nen just now, right when you were saying my fortune."

The moment the word 'Nen' entered his ears, the young man halted his movement, abruptly so. At the same time, Marisa was noting a wild change in his soft and polite expression to a facet she had perhaps regretted awakening, even if accidentally. "I wasn't," he claimed, though his voice was quiet, and Marisa found herself almost mishearing the young man. "That vision was my own." The young man cast his gaze to the ground, his grimace now invisible to Marisa.

Seeing him still hesitant, Marisa felt almost as though underestimated, and took an assertive step forward. "You sayin' I was seeing it wrong? I'd recognize that white energy anywhere!" she snapped, her grip on her own bag tightening to the point she could feel her fingernails sinking onto the palms of her hands.

"No..." He proceeded to violently cough, as if something was caught in his throat and cutting his breathing. "It just leaks out; it has nothing to do with me." From what Marisa could see, the young man was on the verge of hyperventilating for reasons unknown. However, she could not bring herself to sympathise with the young man when he appeared to continue lying to her shamelessly. "I can't stop it; I swear..." The young man glanced behind him as if wanting to run away, only to scowl in anger. "I shouldn't have made an exception for this Nen-user... Conversations with Hunters always turn out like this..." he quietly and resentfully muttered, his words almost inaudible to Marisa.

"Huh? 'Hunters'?" Marisa repeated the only word she had clearly comprehended from the young man, her eyebrows raised in a straightforward show of pure confusion. "What the hell are you talkin' about _now_?" Meanwhile, the young man was attempting to recover his bearings once more, and his breathing was slowing at a moderate pace.

"I'm sorry," he said after taking another deep breath for good measure. His expression was cold, akin to a blank mask, serving to unnerve Marisa despite his unassuming behavior. "But I'm busy, so I'll be taking my leave."

"Busy?! You think that kinda lie's gonna **—** "

"Farewell," he bitterly uttered in a louder voice than normal for him, cutting Marisa off entirely. Then, in quick succession, he turned around and headed for his left, intending to cleanly abandon Marisa.

"Hey, wait up!" Marisa followed after him with a dash, but by the time she had reached the left corner, she could not spot the young man among the people on the streets, even though his garnments should have stood out enough for Marisa's eyes to spot him. Marisa scowled, concluding that she was somehow bested in speed. "He's sure fast on his feet," Marisa flatly remarked, inwardly frustrated.

 _Guess I can't give Reimu any good leads yet,_ she thought, _Still, better tell her about this, just in case._ Marisa glanced at Heavens Arena, which she could see from afar, and found herself relieved by the familiar sight before finally proceeding with her own endeavors.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Under the shade of a massive straw hat, feeling the passing Autumn breezes, Reisen conversed with a regular customer. "Can't be sure of them rumors, y'know?" The old man faced her with an expression of light concern as he spoke, his hands quickly but dramatically gesticulating according to the tone of his rough, hoarse voice. "Just months ago there was that whole incident with the legends and the possessions and who knows what... By the end of that, the young'uns were buzzin' over that Nen business already. I'd be careful if I were you, miss. You're not from 'round these parts, and people still run their mouths 'bout the house at the bamboo forest. If that weird group sets its sights on you 'cause of it, it'd be Hell for both you and me without your master's medicine!"

The elderly man saw on her shadowed features only traces of a polite smile, constructed to reinforce a positive mood while Reisen herself was deep in thought over the information she was gathering from the man and other customers alike. She nodded in unison with the man's words, only to chuckle lightly, pretending to be amused at the man's theatrical tone. "Well, if push comes to shove, we certainly wouldn't go down without a fight," Reisen responded, "I should hope the only thing you'd have to worry about is your own health, mister." _So some people still think we're suspicious..._ Reisen herself was unsurprised at that, seeing as her own heavily-clothed and shaded figure was more than indicative of someone whose true appearance did not want to be scrutinized. Regardless, Reisen could not help but slip a grimace behind her conversational facade. _Maybe if those two weren't so loose about my concealed identity, Eientei and I would have a much easier time with rumors._ Instances of Marisa outright calling her a youkai rabbit in the Human Village flashed in her mind, though Reisen then suppressed the memories using an ever so bitter smile. "Whatever the case, we appreciate your concern." She lightly bowed before the old man before turning to the side. "Have a good day, and try not to push yourself!" With a quick, dismissive wave of her hand, Reisen parted ways with the old man, whose hearty laughter resounded through the area.

"You ask too much outta me, miss!" However, Reisen was no longer paying attention to the man she had left behind. She traversed the sunny pathway of the village in silence, glancing over the surroundings as if in an attempt to track any oddities. Her red eyes caught on to nothing in particular, as people walked along or talked among each other. Her ears picked up on words vaguely related to the rumors she had previously been discussing, all of them related to that foreign power called Nen. Even so, no matter who among her master's customers she asked, she would receive no conclusive lead. While the rumors were rampant, the heart of the matter was eerily vague and secretive, and Reisen had only been able to gather so much about the rumors in the village over the span of two days. Naturally, she had not spent enough time around the village to give up, and she knew the Human Village was key to solving the current incident.

While ignoring her tingling ears, Reisen decided to have a bar be her next destination in order to listen in on gossiping, drunken men. She had been talking to regular customers so far and using her master's business as an excuse to approach people and gather information, but she had long but realized there was a limit to how knowledgeable the more sickly members of the village were about the foreign power affecting her. Knowing information would not arrive to her so easily and swiftly as she would have wanted, Reisen sighed, dismissed her train of thought concerning the amount of trouble her task warranted and focused on piecing together the little she had found in search for something relevant to Eirin.

"Well, well..." A dignified, though casual voice came from behind Reisen, who turned around in both surprise and displeasure for a multitude of reasons. "What do we have here?" A smirk adorned the features of a rather influential character, one Reisen wished she did not recognize. Miko Toyosatomimi stood before her with sharp eyes, as if seeing through Reisen; while covered by earmuffs, her ears were working just as sharply, unbeknownst to Reisen. "I almost didn't recognize you under that disguise, Eientei's rabbit."

"And I see you're as flashy as always, for a taoist hermit," Reisen awkwardly remarked, uncertain of how to react to the sudden meeting. Thankfully, Miko's voice, although assertive in tone, was purposefully quiet, lacking in the intent of unraveling Reisen's identity.

At Reisen's seemingly apprehensive behavior and comment, Miko faintly chuckled. "I shall take that as a compliment," she responded with a playful wink before glancing to the side, where a group of passing villagers were eyeing Miko and Reisen for their showy appearances alone. Then, her expression shifted into a confident, though subtle smile as Miko placed her hand over her chest. "Though, I would rather skip any further pleasantries. To be perfectly honest, I've a proposition to make of you."

"A proposition?" Reisen immediately questioned, skeptic of Miko's intentions. _What would_ she _want out of Eientei right now?_

"Indeed. You've been gathering information from the human villagers, haven't you?" Reisen gulped while smiling nervously, but refrained from giving Miko an answer. "I knew that from the moment you started since I've been doing the same thing, as well; it isn't easy to miss the medicine-seller from Eientei when she is so well-known already. The only difference is that I began questioning the villagers much earlier than you," Miko effortlessly explained, "In this aspect, you could say I'm more well-informed about the rumors coursing through the village than you are. Wouldn't you be interested in listening to me, who's done most of your work for you already?"

Reisen frowned as she cast her gaze to the floor, deep in thought. The more she considered Miko's words, the more her frown deepened, and she could not shake the feeling that she was probably being looked down upon by the hermit. She rose her face to meet Miko's eyes, which suffered no change from the action, as if anticipating Reisen's actions from the very beginning. "And you'd give that to us without getting anything in return? You're bound to have a catch."

Conversely, Miko's smirk widened, indicating her level of contentment with the flow of the conversation. "I see you're a sharp rabbit," she remarked, "It's only natural we mutually trade for mutually beneficial results." She shrugged as though her words were only obvious and not worth thinking deeply of, while Reisen's eyes narrowed suspectingly as she wondered what exactly she could be plotting. "While you're gathering information from the humans like I am, your intentions lay somewhere else, don't they? Lying to me is a fruitless effort; I see your desires like an open book. Eientei's involvement in this incident is preceded by the involvement of other moon rabbits with the foreign power."

"Wha..." Reisen stepped back in shock, watching as Miko's amused and casual stance faded in a rapid fashion, replaced with an upright position and an elegant frown, belying a faint sense of urgency. "H-haven't you ever heard of privacy?" Reisen shot back accusingly, "What's your goal, anyway? You can't possibly be aiming to stop me."

"Stop you?" Miko condescendingly huffed, as though disappointed in Reisen's assumption. "Nonsense! I'm aiming to help you, if anything. Leave the matters of the Human Village to me: I'll relay to you every piece of pertinent information on Nen and the incident I find, while you search for the moon rabbit intertwined with the incident," she said, "In return, I only ask you tell me _everything_ you'll come to know about the incident from that search. Simple, isn't it?"

Reisen considered the circumstances: she was in the middle of a public pathway of the village along with Miko, who had suddenly appeared to seek Eientei's cooperation. It was hardly a scenario she would expect when her faction and Eientei were not exactly on ammicable terms. Conversely, Reisen could not consider the taoists as openly hostile, either. However, she had known no one was particularly fond of Eientei; she grimaced. _Would this hermit go as far as to come up with something like this?_ "You do know I can't accept or refuse your offer, right? I'd have to consult my master with it first," Reisen cautiously uttered, though she mostly claimed the need for her master's permission in order to buy time to think over Miko's plans, even if her statement was true.

"Of course," Miko promptly responded, as if she had been expecting Reisen's words. "Send her my regards for now, will you? I'd like at least one week before I meet her face-to-face." Reisen did not give Miko any signs of approval or disapproval, and she remained silent. In Miko's perspective, she assumed she either had nothing to say in face of her words, or was adverse to the prospect of having Miko meet with her master, for any sort of reasons Miko had considerable interest in knowing. She continued to speak, breaking the silence: "While the People of the Moon certainly seem like secretive fellows, I don't see a logical reason to so desperately omit the moon rabbit's relation to the incident, especially when I'm already aware of your goals. Though, if you happen to feel some shame for your peers as a fellow moon rabbit, I can understand your hesitation to a fault."

"... They're not my peers anymore."

"Oh?"

Upon realizing her own slip-up, Reisen flinched, and stepped back before shooting Miko a glare. "It's nothing!" she exclaimed, while inwardly assuring herself that perhaps Miko did not hear her considering she had only muttered her previous words. On the other hand, Miko's gaze conveyed nothing but sheer curiosity and doubt, as she raised a single eyebrow. "Anyway, the only one that can actually decide that kind is my master, so the most I can do is report what you said to her. Still, I don't understand why you'd be so interested in our end of the incident. The interference just looks like a side effect of Nen going around. It's not like this power comes from the Moon."

"If you were sure of that, you wouldn't have a need to see the other moon rabbits for yourself. Your master clearly sees more to the matter than you say, and I don't intend to let this lead escape me," Miko asserted, as if she did not truthfully accept a no for an answer. While Miko spoke as though setting up an optional arrangement, Reisen noted, it was more than apparent that Miko expected only a positive response, much to her dismay.

Reisen could not help but scowl under Miko's overwhelmingly convicted presence, especially as she could not fully trust her intentions yet. "Well, why would you need us to help you, anyway? You've seen my desires as you pleased already, didn't you? If so, you could've just sought out the remaining moon rabbits yourself while I was busy with the village."

"You're right," Miko acknowledged, unfazed by Reisen's skepticism. Reisen herself would have preferred to see Miko fretting over her distrust, but it appeared almost as if Miko could see through her, unnerving her inwardly. "I'd been keeping an eye on you since yesterday; I knew everything from the very beginning." Then, Miko glanced to the side, but Reisen was unable to see anything of note when following her gaze, as it was mysteriously directed towards the roofs of the nearby establishments. "However, there is something you've yet to know about the current Human Village."

"Huh?"

"It's no longer a safe location," Miko cleanly stated, her gaze resolute with absolute certaintly. "Neither for you, nor even myself. Have you questioned why I didn't have us move away from this public area of the village despite the topic at hand?"

"I did find it strange..." Reisen muttered, though she remained awed by the sudden revelation.

"There would be no point to it by now," Miko said, "We are being watched as we speak."

Reisen rapidly turned to her left and right from fear, which threatened her hat to fall from her head. "What?!" She grabbed onto the hat, keeping it in place while shading her widened red eyes. "How?! I don't sense anything!"

"They can sense our presence while erasing their own. Tracking them down is almost impossible." Miko knowingly smirked before adjusting her earmuffs. "Even so, my ears are not as easy to fool. Whether they hide their presence or not, I hear them all the same," she confidently stated and closed her eyes for a brief few seconds, as if to needlessly demonstrate. "Though, only now have they found out I was aware of their presence."

"... You're revealing all of this to them on purpose?" Reisen blankly questioned, while her own thoughts failed to keep up with her words, lingering on the fact that the Human Village was somehow unsafe. "How are you going to gather information now?"

Against Reisen's expectations, yet again, a wholehearted chuckle resounded in the area, originated by Miko. "How, indeed? I'm sure they are just as curious as you are."

 _This whole time..._ Reisen thought, incredulous of the situation. _She's been accounting for a spy's presence...?_ "No, wait. How can I know you're telling me the truth?"

"Unfortunately, you have no choice but to trust my word," Miko nonchalantly responded. "By the time you see substantial proof of my claims, it will have been too late for you." Despite Miko's tone, Reisen knew the weight behind that sentence. Faced with such heavy statements, along with entirely unexpected pieces of information, Reisen was silenced before Miko, unsure of how to react to a turn of events so bizarre. "I advise you stop coming to the Human Village altogether starting from the day after tomorrow. Needless to say I was not the only person watching over you since yesterday."

 _I still can't sense a thing. Is this just a bluff, or is it Nen at work? I can't tell!_ Miko's posture always implied complete self-confidence; it held no evidence as to whether Miko was lying or not. Her surroundings were also as ordinary as ever, without a single sign of a malicious presence. However, at the same time, she could not see Miko inventing a lie so ridiculous. "Then, are you telling me it's too dangerous for me to wander around on my own here?" Reisen asked, just in case, though she had already decided to leave the thinking to her master later on.

"That would depend on the caliber of these Nen-users. However, you'd best not let your guard down," Miko calmly warned, as though confident that danger would not truly befall Reisen. Regardless, she did not show herself nonchalant either, and did not hesitate to add: "To them, you are a youkai to be exterminated."

On the other hand, Reisen could not help but find the slight concern from Miko of all people exceedingly suspicious, even regardless of what seemed to be Miko's genuine warning. She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, her creased eyebrows only adding to the apparent confusion in regards to the flow of the conversation. "Don't tell me you decided to reveal yourself just to warn me about this. You yourself said you could have done everything without us knowing," Reisen said, "If you'd just kept to yourself, the people watching over us wouldn't have known anything either."

"And what of it?" Miko stretched her hands outwards in a ostentatious gesture, garnering the attention of a few onlookers. "Having them know about my meddling is precisely what I wish for! Whether they know or not, they will see that the upper hand will always be mine. I may as well have the upper hand and your cooperation at the same time. Surely you would agree with me on that." Then, Miko locked eyes with Reisen, her smile bright with blinding confidence. However, her gaze itself was a calm, straightforward one.

On that moment, something clicked within Reisen's mind. _Oh. Now I get it,_ she thought, _She's trying to appeal to the fact that she warned me about the dangers of the village beforehand so I can persuade the master for her out of gratitute. Really, what a pain..._ Tired and troubled, though simultaneously disconcerted over the realization that had dawned on her about Miko's intentions, Reisen sighed. "Who knows? As I said, I'd have to talk to my master before anything as big as this is decided. Either way, whether it's true or not, I'll at least be careful, but I can't guarantee we will agree to your offer. You shouldn't think I'll have any influence on my master's decision just because I'm indebted to you this time around."

"Indebted? I've done nothing but tell you facts," Miko responded before lightly shrugging. "Well, take it how you will. Having you believe you owe me wouldn't hurt, admittedly enough."

Reisen stared at Miko for a moment, scrutinizing her words in search of anything she could pick apart as a malicious intent. _What the...?_ However, no matter the angle she saw the conversation, her conclusion remained the same to the point where she was forced to smile in resignation. _Whatever. Let's just stop thinking about her already._ "I'm assuming this is all you wanted to tell me? I was going to keep gathering information, but now that you appeared, I've got to head back to Eientei right away. I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow morning with the master's verdict. Is that alright?"

"Of course." Miko smirked, only to eye the various pouches on Reisen's layered clothing. "Regardless, I see many people in the village who rely on your master's pharmaceutical prowess and you, who sells them medicine directly." She turned around, her purple cape swaying with the sudden movement. "Let us hope it stays that way." With that, Miko walked away, her steps noticeably leaning to her right in direction.

"I hope so, too..." Reisen muttered before facing the opposite direction, intending to return to Eientei by travelling to the village's entrance. No matter how many times she glanced around, however, she saw no signs of being watched. She looked back at Miko, who she could still see from afar.

 _Let us hope it stays that way, as it's the only action you've taken that has benefitted Gensokyo so far. Though, I would have surely liked to believe otherwise, considering I've gone out of my way to save the rabbit..._ Miko's expression was but an ominous grimace, her gaze cold and calculating. She could not afford to relax; not now. _Regardless,_ _now that I've denounced my intentions, their eyes are squarely on me, just as expected._ If only faintly, she could hear them. While she could not sense their presence, their desires remained all the same; their footsteps were unmistakable. At least, Miko knew that they were physically present. _Even the ones spying over that rabbit are monitoring me. Indeed, everything is going precisely according to plan.  
_

The shadows of an unpopulated alley of the village darkened the surrounding thin pathway. Miko had been heading for the outskirts, knowing four others followed behind her. _The rabbit_ _may be safe for now, but they will surely target her tomorrow. Eientei is an essential target for their goals: if the villagers come to know the true identity of its residents, they will see it as an infiltrating youkai power and fear of youkai will increase. Thus, the credibility of that group will increase, and Gensokyo's stability will begin to crumble, sweeping me along with it... That alone must be stopped at all costs.  
_

Miko stopped in her tracks near a path leading to the Forest of Magic, where houses were few and far in between and trees could be seen growing tall in the horizon, blocking heavy sunlight; the wall surrounding the village was faintly visible in between the foliage. A somewhat wide field separated the residences from the mostly emptied outskirts, and the dirt path was a great many steps to the right away from Miko, who was only concerned with the people present in the area. She noted there was a shop located between the Human Village and the Forest of Magic, but she was technically still within the Human Village, making her far from the shop. "Is this good enough for you?" Miko asked while facing upwards, as though she was unable to locate the one she was speaking to. "You should know no one is here. You can sense their spiritual power." Then, she sharply turned around as a surprise, looking straight at a wall of a modest human residence to her right. That wall was on the opposite side of Miko, so she could not see beyond it. However, she was certain someone was there. "Show yourselves, if you dare! _I_ shall be your opponent!"

A single unnatural sound, corresponding with the rustling of grass, led to a prompt reaction from Miko. As one figure flashed in front of her eyes at blinding speeds, Miko had reached for the hilt of her prized sword. The moment she unsheathed it, brandishing only a fraction of its pristine blade, pure white light covered her opponents' line of sight.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, here we have a match bound to put you at the edge of your seats!" From one end came a pale man of short stature, though his muscles were noticeable from a distance. His T-shirt was a remarkably casual red, but his green gaze reflected an underlying enthusiasm. "First comes the Spinning Menace, Wei! Don't be deceived by that casual stance of his; he packs a punch strong enough to get him as far as the 190th floor! He's blown away both the audience and his opponents with his unparalleled fighting prowess!" From the other end walked a frowning Reimu, already more than bored of the continuous battles. She gave the bustling crowds of seated people a glance, and was entirely apathetic to the lack of Marisa's presence in the midst of it. At that point, Reimu held no resentment towards Marisa for not watching her battles, as they all tended to end the same way. "Then comes the Self-Proclaimed Shrine Maiden, Reimu Hakurei! As a female announcer, I'm admittedly pleased to see that a female fighter has finally swept through the arena completely unscathed, beating all competition relentlessly! Will she continue her impressive track record, or will Wei cut her progress short and claim his victory?! We'll find out who gets to pass to the 200th floor now, through this riveting match!"

The moment Reimu entered the arena proper, her eyes locked onto Wei, who was similarly sizing Reimu up with his gaze. _They've been getting stronger the higher up I go, but it's not like I wouldn't be able to handle it at this point._ "Reimu, was it?" Reimu raised her eyebrows questioningly, wondering why he was speaking to her. _I think it's the first time an opponent's talked to me._ "I'll give you a warning while you can still stand: if you want to beat me, you're gonna have to give it your all for this one. Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a woman." Wei smiled slyly while removing his hands from his pockets, seemingly in preparation to assume a fighting stance. "I'm here to have some fun. I wouldn't want you to ruin it for me by being a disappointment."

"Oh? Wei has taken a moment to taunt Reimu! How will Reimu respond to this?!"

Reimu hummed in a mock pensive, neutral manner, unable to even become riled up by his insulting words from a sheer lack of interest in the situation. "Is that so? I can't possibly have fun after 4 fights in a row, but you do you, I suppose. Aren't you going to fight?" she plainly questioned as she loosely demonstrated a kick. "If so, don't just waste my time saying something so pointless."

"... And it seems Reimu is completely unaffected! Her levels of disinterest are only indicative of her confidence in the outcome of this fight!"

Wei huffed dismissively. "Don't tell me..." In a second, he lunged at her by jumping high in her direction, leaving Reimu to dodge an incoming kick from above by stepping to the side. "I didn't warn you!" Then, he rotated his body to his right, coinciding with Reimu's left, precisely the direction Reimu had moved towards to dodge the kick.

While Reimu had effortlessly jumped back to avoid Wei, her grimace expressed that she was more than troubled by his technique. _He doesn't have many openings..._ Reimu ran forward, towards Wei's right at the same time he was landing on the ground, and jumped at him as high as she possibly could without flying. Wei swung himself towards her, rotating again, stretching out his arms and fisted hands so as to connect with Reimu in some capacity, but Reimu had simply reached out for Wei's left arm and grabbed onto it before propelling him in the opposite direction. By the time she had landed on the ground, Wei was flying to the right, though Reimu had failed to hit Wei due to her position when she was holding on to his arm preventing her from properly using her legs to kick him at the same time. "What a pain..." As she had expected, Wei had landed on his two feet unscathed, grinning Reimu's way.

Reimu could not help but sigh, albeit the sigh had turned into a gasp in a matter of seconds. She reflexively ducked and rolled to the side in order to avoid a punch from Wei, who had then resorted to kicking Reimu as she was in the process of standing. Reimu jumped away from the kick and charged with one of her own, only for Wei to grab her leg with one hand and pushing her towards him. Her balance unsteady, Reimu spun while spreading her other leg out in order to aim for his face with another kick, which was mere centimeters from connecting to his cheek. However, in one swift motion, Wei had thrown her away to the opposite side in much the same way Reimu had done to him, and Reimu was sent flying almost off of the ring had she not used her ability to float in order to slow the speed of her trajectory down.

Even so, Reimu was given no time to recover her bearings as Wei had chased after her as she flew and the only thing in Reimu's line of sight was a pale fist soaring in her direction. At the very corner of the arena, Reimu had leaned back from her standing position, her back almost folded backwards halfway. As if falling out of the ring, she had directed her right leg up and used her left leg to support and propel her kick aimed at Wei's chin. Unbeknownst to Wei, who had only thought Reimu had lost her balance while regaining her composure, Reimu's foot had suddenly connected cleanly to his chin, causing him to gasp for breath and fall to the arena's floor, while Reimu's body flew with a simple backflip, onto the floor outside of the ring proper. "Critical hit and knockdown!" the nearby referee shouted while keeping a close eye on Reimu, who had thankfully landed on her two feet before taking a deep breath and jumping back to the arena.

"And there we have our first hit by Reimu; a critical hit, at that! Right when we thought she would finally be caught off guard, Reimu manages to knock Wei unconscious for a few seconds with a decisive kick below his chin! However, the match is not over yet! Reimu is giving Wei no breathing room, even as he recovers from her attack!" Surely enough, Reimu was dashing his way as he was standing, somewhat stunned. Her proceeding hit was then blocked by Wei's forearm, which had been immediately placed in a defensive position to the side. However, Reimu had swiftly reached for his back and swung her right leg backwards for a strong kick. With Reimu's unconsciously triggered blinding speeds, combined with Wei's recovering state resulted in his ungraceful, though intense collision to the ground and another collection of shouts from an immensely engaged audience.

"Clean hit and knockdown!" Seeing as Wei had stayed on the ground for more than a few seconds, and the attack was a mighty one, the referee had eventually instated another knockdown, while Reimu looked down at Wei with a nonchalant frown on her face. The referee approached Wei and squatted to better examine him. "Can you still stand?" he asked.

"You can always give up, you know?" Reimu added as her mind drifted to the food she was going to buy after finally reaching the 200th floor as a celebration for her efforts. While the fight itself hardly motivated her, Reimu had far too many reasons to fight to afford losing, leading her stance to tense when she heard a muffled laughter from Wei.

"Oh? Even though Wei is considerably battered, he appears to be laughing!"

His body twitched under his attempts to move, and when his arm finally stretched out in order to support the weight of his body, helping him stand, the referee distanced himself from the fight and left the arena to watch from afar. Her last hit had been successful because he had just finished his attempt at standing, but now that he was seemingly weakened, Reimu saw no need to be especially fast with her offensive and instead waited for him deliberately, even as he continued to laugh maniacally. "You... You're good!" he exclaimed, "It looks like... I finally found my match!"

Reimu scowled. "Don't think this is all I'm made of. If I had my weapons with me, I'd have you beaten up way faster than this!" Reimu barely sidestepped Wei's punch and was unable to retaliate from his vertical kick obstructing her own oncoming fist, leaving Reimu to jump back from him. Even so, he quickly closed in the distance again, spinning his outstretched arms on the height of Reimu's face as he did so. Reimu was forced to duck, but saw in that action a chance to rise up again when he stopped along with a kick planned to connect with his stomach. While Reimu was standing again, however, Wei had instead attempted to kick Reimu with his left leg, and Reimu, who had been in the middle of raising her leg for the kick and positioning it to his stomach, had been unable to properly propel herself back so as to avoid the hit.

In desperation, Reimu hopped with her other leg and kept it in the air as she projected herself backwards using her powers to float and stretched her arms back, letting her hands land on the floor. Using them as her support, she executed a backflip and stood before noticing Wei was gone from his original position. She turned around, having quickly determined she would have been able to detect him from the corner of her eyes had he been charging from the side. However, he was also not behind her. Her eyes wide, she processed the possibility that he was above her and she stepped back before looking upwards, assuming he had charged for her and jumped as she had been standing. Yet again, Reimu grimaced, pondering on the best way to hit him midair when she could not show that she could fly.

She had simply stood still now. She waited for him to land, even as he propelled himself forward through what Reimu was starting to assume to be his signature technique involving spinning his body. Wei himself was uncertain of her intent, but it amused him regardless, especially as his expectations of her had risen considerably. When the sole of his black shoes was barely grazing Reimu's right cheek, she quickly rushed for Wei's right side before swinging her leg towards it. Unable to kick her from behind before her leg could collide with him as she was on his side, and equally lacking in the time to control his legs with his special move when he was so close to the floor, he was rendered completely off-balance by Reimu's powerful kick and knocked to the arena, having only afforded the time to cover his face with one of his arms to prevent further injuries. "Clean hit and knockdown!"

"This isn't boding well for Wei! Reimu has already amassed 7 points, while he has yet to land a single hit on Reimu! Will he ever be able to catch up?!"

At that point, Wei had silently stood with a cold expression on his face; Reimu herself could not help but blankly note that as she recalled his laughter. _He sure looks mad at me. Not that any of this is my fault._ Reimu charged at him, but she was forced to stop from the punch he had aimed at her at outrageously fast speeds. Then, she had to dodge an additional hit from the side and block a sudden kick by using her shin to guard herself. His kick was considerably strong, and Reimu winced from pain before jumping back, hoping not to be faced with another similar situation. Without any time to consider her circumstances, however, Wei had lunged at her immediately, and Reimu's fist flew for his face in prompt retaliation. While it did lightly connect, it hardly counted as a clean hit, leading Reimu to click her tongue in some frustration before rushing away from Wei's counter attack with the intent to draw a considerable distance from him. _I could really use a critical hit and knockdown to get this fight over with, but he's gotten faster,_ she thought while her eyes locked onto Wei's fast movement intently. Seeing him close in on her, Reimu jumped to the side and raised her knee high to hit at Wei with, or at least to force him to dodge. _But then again, I've dealt with fast people before, and he's not the worst of them!_

Unable to slow himself down from the speedy dash, Wei was knocked to the opposite side of Reimu's knee upon contact with it, his eyes wide as he processed the entirely rudimentary tactic Reimu had used to counter his rising speed. He spun while recovering his fighting stance, giving Reimu no opening from which to attack him again. _Another wasted hit..._ Reimu approached Wei regardless in an impulsive rush, figuring she would be unable to promptly defeat him without taking risks. _I'm too close to the 200th floor to give up now...!_ Her eyes locked onto Wei, noting the slightest changes in the speed of his spinning, which was beginning to cease. That slowed moment was enough to spur a small smile in Reimu, who had already readied her elbow and made sure to be at her top speed. Though she could not properly aim it, Reimu's distance from Wei was far too short for Reimu to miss, leading her to squat ever so slightly and swiftly elbow him in the stomach. In quick succession to it, Reimu used the propulsion necessary to stand again to add strength to a soon following vertical kick strong enough to throw Wei entirely off balance, executed all the while turning to right, to face Wei's side from the front. Then, as Wei struggled to move sideways midair in order to dodge, Reimu's fist flew up towards his face, pushing it to the side with pure force until Reimu's arm was fully stretched and her hand had slid from Wei's nose, which had had broken.

However, Reimu's gaze only conveyed a continuing will to fight. Without the slightest intention to lose him from sight, Reimu was already seemingly preparing another attack. The referee watched that from afar in anxiety, as he knew that Reimu, too, had gotten more serious about the fight than she had been previously and, though he still found some disbelief in the notion, that Reimu was a greatly capable opponent who far surpassed Wei. After another blow to his stomach strong enough to extort Wei of air, the referee grimaced as Wei dropped to the floor with a bloody nose and shouted, "Critical hit and knockdown!" Normally, had Wei stood up after the assault, Reimu would have been awarded with only a critical hit, if not a clean hit depending on the referee. Even so, having seen Reimu's fierce performance, he had intended to make that attack be Reimu's last.

"And we have a clear winner in Reimu Hakurei with 10 points!" Reimu had taken a deep breath the moment she heard those words and relaxed her stance, even as Wei stood from her attack with a murderous gaze, though he appeared weakened. _He doesn't seem very knocked out,_ Reimu thought before briefly glancing at the referee, whose expression was apologetic. Despite that, Reimu had nothing to say, especially as the bias had worked in her favor. "Yet again, Reimu has managed to claim her victory unscathed, hit only once to defend herself! Her outstanding performance in this match has earned her the right to advance to the 200th floor, where even stronger foes await her! Will this finally mark the end of Reimu's effortless rise through the arena? Or will she reach the very top through her prowess alone?! Whatever the result, I am definitely looking forward to seeing her next match!"

Laying eyes on Wei for a moment, Reimu then turned around and left for the exit, focusing on the fact that she had finally achieved her main objective. Meanwhile, from the massive, seated crowd, yellow eyes locked in on her determined expression with keen interest, unbeknownst to Reimu.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Have a nice day!" The voice of the receptionist Reimu had just spoken to resounded in the eerily emptied hallway of the 200th floor. While Reimu was not entirely able to prove it, she had the faintest feeling she was being watched, even though the most she could see walking around were female staff members.

"What a creepy floor..." Reimu absent-mindedly muttered as she searched for the elevator that would take her to her new room, key in hand. In her other hand was her much-missed weapon, her Purification Rod. Seeing as she was now over the 200th floor, Reimu was allowed to fight exactly as she wished, and she assumed the other fighters were able to do the same, using the power Reimu even now could faintly sense in the air. At the moment, Reimu figured the foreign power was being used in matches occurring from this floor onwards, and found no oddity in the notion considering what she had heard from Resso, especially as Heavens Arena seemed to always be active with varying matches. In fact, had it not been that way, Reimu would have taken much longer to get where she now was traversing, so Reimu had no complaints. "Oh, there it is."

The moment she laid eyes on a uniformed arm presumably belonging to the elevator attendant (the rest of her blocked by the hallway's wall), Reimu sensed an ominous, if not murderous energy briefly washing over the halls, causing her to turn around in order to face the perceived threat. As if materialized without leaving a single trace of his presence, a bizarre-looking man was leaning on the lightly-colored wall of the hallway, his stance almost disconcertingly casual: beyond his deathly pale skin, the first features she had noted from him were the painted star under his right eye, and the painted tear under the other; as if to match those, two suit symbols were etched onto the front of what Reimu plainly considered an exceedingly short sleeveless shirt, though even she was not especially familiar with the symbols depicted, either; from the waist down, at least, the man appeared minimally normal, or so Reimu vacantly noted, but the odd impression was forever engraved in her mind, especially as she felt more of a need to look at his face than anywhere else at the moment. When Reimu confirmed he had surely been the origin of the presence she had felt for the briefest of seconds (an easy endeavor considering the lack of other fighters in the area) and locked eyes with him, the man lowly chuckled, seemingly amused. "I saw your match," he conversationally remarked, contrasting heavily with Reimu's current tension, "I must say I am a bit disappointed in your performance. You were holding back, weren't you?"

Finding that the man appeared to simply want to speak to her, Reimu lightly frowned as though slightly disappointed in the sudden encounter. "And who are you?" Reimu questioned in an assertive, if not flat voice, belying disinterest.

"Incidentally, I was going to ask you that exact same question," the man lightly retorted, though his smirk was almost imposing when combined with his peering eyes looking over Reimu. "It isn't every day you find someone flying in the air at will after a morning shower."

"You saw that, huh..." Reimu pensively uttered. _What a bother; some weirdo noticed me._

Ignoring Reimu's quiet statement, the man continued to speak: "And just when I'd figured I wouldn't find you again so soon, you appear at the arena and begin climbing your way towards me. If I hadn't overheard a match featuring you while leaving this tower, I would have been gone from this country without knowing a thing; how sad, indeed." Despite his words, the man was smiling, and his stance was as relaxed and uncaring as Reimu had initially perceived it to be. "Still, those opponents must have been far too easy for someone like you," he lackadaisically added, "You could hardly show off that irregular Nen of yours."

"Irregular Nen? Don't group me up with your weird foreign powers," Reimu immediately countered. "And from your entrance just now, you must definitely be a Nen-user. I don't know what business you've got with me, but I've got more than a few questions to ask out of you! Now, tell me everything you know about Nen, or else...!" She then brandished her weapon at the man, who regarded Reimu with uncanny interest the moment she began to ardently proclaim her intentions. He seemed especially focused on Reimu's eyes, which were clear with burning conviction, while his own were slightly wider than before as they glinted dangerously.

"'Or else'...?" He dragged out the words almost longingly, voicing them as but an ominously innocent inquiry. The man removed his back from the wall and stepped forward, fearlessly approaching Reimu. "Or else... What? Don't just keep me waiting."

"So you'd rather get beaten up? You otherworldly people sure are secretive about your weird powers," Reimu retorted. "I come all the way up here to interrogate some random fighters, and I find some weirdo in need of a beating instead! But then again, I suppose interrogations were never my style!" Then, with a simple smile, Reimu sidestepped the man and aimed her Purification Rod his way, only to find he had already passed by her as she had moved, causing her to turn around in order to keep up and raise her leg instead for a kick readied to force the man to withdraw his own attack. However, the man had merely moved behind her, and when Reimu saw him standing, she noticed that he had not been in the process of attacking her at all.

As if he had been waiting for it, the man effortlessly blocked Reimu's kick using his right arm, which he proceeded to bash against the wall while supporting Reimu's foreleg, promptly destabilizing her balance by the sudden move. In astoundingly fast succession, his other arm rushed for Reimu's stomach, his loosely closed fist almost connecting with it if not for her ability to float. Reimu flew up to the ceiling and took out two paper charms with the hand holding her room key, which had stopped her from grabbing onto more. The man set his sights on the objects briefly with curiosity before hearing hurried footsteps down the hallway, leading both Reimu and the man to look towards the source.

An elevator attendant was dashing towards them in agitation with her right hand holding on to her hat, which struggled to stay in place on top of her head. "Drop your weapons and calm down, please! Fighting anywhere that isn't a designated match is forbidden and can lead to your expulsion from the arena!"

Reimu widened her eyes in surprise. "S-seriously?" She had failed to notice the elevator attendant's increasing confusion at Reimu's position midair, exposed clearly by an awkward frown.

"If you did not know beforehand, you may get away with a warning for now, but another act of this nature will be seen as a clear opposition to the rules and terms of Heavens Arena, so please exercise caution," she stated in a factual, though slightly distraught fashion, especially as both Reimu and the man seemed to be regarding her in an almost neutral fashion now that they had figured the intent behind her presence.

"Yes, yes," the man dismissively responded, his tone almost flat with lacking enthusiasm. "We'll be careful not to get carried away the next time around." However, when he looked upwards to face Reimu, he could not help but smirk. "Right?"

"Right..." Reimu blankly muttered, her attention now shifting to the man because he had needlessly sought her input on the matter. Noting Reimu's focus was on him, the man chuckled ominously, while the elevator attendant was starting to step back from the two.

"W-well, as long as you understand..." the elevator attendant muttered as she turned around and left for the elevator, which was only visible at a moderate distance.

Reimu had not paid the elevator attendant any mind by then, since she was too busy gauging whether the man would continue to attack her anyway. Slowly, she stored the two paper charms and left her hand near the same position. Afterwards, she lowered herself to the floor near the man's side.

"Such a pity," he easily commented with a wry smile, and his lacking fatigue or signs of a struggle in his confident stance further contrasted with the remark. "We were only just getting started. It seems there won't be any time for us to have a proper fight after all." Then, his eyes narrowed, and his smile widened. "Not yet, at least. Which brings me to my business with you."

"You had business with me?" Reimu asked with genuine wonder. "I thought you were just picking a fight."

"Wasn't that the other way around? I wasn't planning on doing anything to you until you started leading me on so forcefully," the man cheerfully retorted. The way he smiled seemed almost eerily carefree, only reinforcing the displeasure Reimu felt towards his suggestive phrasing.

She ended up sighing, resigning herself from any willpower necessary to make any kind of observation on the man's odd personality. "Well, putting that aside, I can hear you out on that business of yours, but only if you tell me everything you know about Nen. I didn't come all this way for nothing," Reimu bitterly stated while recalling the many fights she had participated in, none of them particularly enjoyable in her perspective. "I know you people on the 200th floor use that power, so there's no use lying to me. Until you tell me what I need to know, I'm not letting you leave, with or without fighting." Crossing her arms, she stared at the man expectantly, her resolve unwavering.

For a moment, the hallway was stricken with silence. While Reimu seemed to be incessantly staring at the man, it was an entirely clear gaze in comparison to the man's, which was almost too intricately scrutinizing her every feature. If anything, there was nothing reflected in Reimu's eyes but a straightforward will, as if no other thought was occurring to her beyond her present goal; as if further thought or analysis were unnecessary. Even so, she was tapping her left foot impatiently without even noticing it while wearing a grimace befitting a sour mood.

"Such a fearless expression..." His amber irises barely visible under his eyelids, his gaze on Reimu's genuine conviction was to her something beyond malicious, but twisted regardless, leading her to tense in anticipation for another attack. However, her actions had seemingly backfired, as the man only saw further amusement in it; he lowly chuckled, his voice smooth, though eerie. Then, he flashed her another eerily cheerful smile before simply adding, "Yes, it's definitely a good look on you. Reimu, was it?" Reimu reflexively stepped back from the man, her expression blank with apathy. Meanwhile, the man slowly nodded to himself, as if confirming his own evaluation of Reimu, whatever it happened to be. "I'll keep _you_ in mind. Though, you said you wanted to know about Nen, right?"

Reimu grimaced, unable to find joy in the fact that the conversation was finally flowing in her favor simply due to the condescending edge in his words. "So you're finally up for talking reasonably? Because I'm just about getting sick of your creepy antics," Reimu promptly said, her words sharp as a knife and lacking in any form of hesitation. "If you have anything relevant to tell me about that power, just spit it out!"

"From the way you're speaking, it looks like you're really not familiar with Nen, oddly enough," the man loosely noted, as though completely unaffected by Reimu's imposing demeanor. "Haven't you realized you use it as well?"

Reimu scowled as she pointed at the man with her weapon. "As I said, don't group me together with that weird energy! I'm using spiritual power, not whatever that Nen stuff is! Though, I doubt you'd understand what I'm telling you," she resentfully asserted, "Either way, this isn't about me; it's about Nen!"

 _'Spiritual power', she says..._ "I guess you're right," he dismissively stated, as if to smoothen the flow of the conversation. Reimu's eyes narrowed in suspicion, figuring the man had not chosen those words because he believed her. _I'd assumed she was a Hunter, but if she doesn't even know about Nen, this only makes things much easier on me._ "Would you like a hint, then?"

"A hint? If that's all you're giving me, I might as well look for someone else," Reimu countered, "It's not like you're the only fighter in this floor."

As though Reimu had uttered a mildly amusing joke, the man smirked knowingly. "You shouldn't expect anything from the other fighters. In this tower, it's almost tradition to scare newcomers with Nen; the moment they see you don't know about it, they'll presume you're just as defenseless," he casually explained, "Even if this floor is full of Nen-users, you won't get a single piece of information here."

Reimu considered the hypothesis the man implied, consisting of the pointlessness of Reimu's actions so far. While she would have wanted to deny him completely, she recalled the time she was conversing with Resso: his reference to great injuries over the 200th floors from an overwhelming difference in strength would fittingly correspond to Nen-users using their power against opponents who had gotten that far without knowing of it. However, even so, there was no definitive proof; Reimu's main source of doubt was the fact that she did not feel as though the man was lying. Regardless, the mere thought of having wasted her time brought great frustration to Reimu, whose fisted hands trembled in anger. "Then that's for me to decide," she said, "so, fine. Just give me your hint and I'll figure the rest out on my own." _Besides, if I fight him right now, I'll get kicked out of here, probably for good._

"A wise decision," the man smoothly stated. Meanwhile, Reimu's expression was starting to reflect a calm, albeit tired disposition, as if she was almost running out of patience. It was nothing to be surprised at, in Reimu's own perspective: the late afternoon was upon her, and she was certainly not going to participate in another fight for the day. "Now, let me tell you the sure-fire way to get to know Nen..." Even so, she could not help but tense at what she deducted to be the moment she would get a significant lead. Seeing that, the man's smirk widened. "Simply take the Hunter Exam."

The unknown term had taken Reimu aback somewhat as she grimaced bitterly in face of her own confusion. "The Hunter Exam? What's that?" she asked.

In a calm, though somewhat exaggerated motion, the man shrugged. "Why don't you find out yourself? That's what a hint is for, after all."

"Is that so..." she vacantly muttered, deep in thought. _The 'Hunter Exam', huh..._ Unable to assume what exactly it stood for, Reimu's mind wandered to other topics, and, in realization, she shifted her focus to the man again. "By the way, didn't you have business with me or whatever?"

"Oh, that? I decided to leave it for later, so it's alright for now," the man nonchalantly responded, though his mood seemed anything but. In fact, his sly smirk only appeared wider upon the recollection of his supposed business.

While Reimu would have normally cared to point out that particularly significant implication in the man's statement, her dominant desire to leave for her room after having finally gotten a lead overcame the urge, so she instead said, "Well, if there's nothing you want out of me right now, I'll just go." With that, she gave him a careless wave and she walked by him in order to head towards the elevator in the distance. "Bye."

"See you later." Reimu heard that from a strangely close distance but gave it no further thought as she found herself getting closer and closer to the elevator, the same elevator attendant that had stopped them now barely in sight. She had noticed Reimu as well, and struggled to politely smile.

When Reimu got closer, the elevator was opened for her, allowing Reimu to simply enter without an awkward pause. Strangely enough, the elevator was not closed upon her entry, something that Reimu had at first noted before she turned around to face the doors. It was then she saw the man cheerfully smiling her way as he proceeded to enter the elevator, to which Reimu could not help but flatly question, "Why are you still here?"

"Because this is the closest elevator around and you're the only one who can fly at will."

... The sly, lighthearted retort had been effective enough to bring an apprehensive smile out of a tired Reimu, who had realized she had not given much thought to her own words. "Good point..." The man's consequent chuckle only served to reinforce Reimu's feelings of awkwardness, as she looked to the side, moderately flustered.

Somehow, even after that, the man and Reimu had managed a brief conversation before going their separate ways. Reimu, however, was now occupied thinking of the information she had been given.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

While Reimu had briefly considered it when she received the key, she had eventually forsaken the topic of Marisa's whereabouts in order to focus on the hint given by the mysterious man. However, the moment she had reached out for the keyhole of the unfamiliar room, her eyes had widened in shock and anxiety in regards to Marisa's awareness of the room change. Seeing as she had not watched her latest battle or been with her afterwards, there had been no chance for Marisa to ever know Reimu had changed rooms simply by getting to the 200th floor.

After almost two hours of searching and waiting for Marisa, Reimu had taken her to the entrance of her room, which she had finally been able to open and observe for herself. In one of her hands was a white plastic bag full of a variety of objects Reimu had failed to identify, all of them belonging to Marisa, who had returned with a severely sore left arm from its sheer weight. Reimu herself struggled somewhat with the bag, but since she did not have to walk long distances carrying it, she ended up dropping it by the room's entrance without much damage. The first one to advance past said entrance was Marisa, who appeared to be taking in the size and appearance of the room in awe. "How did they manage to get ya a room fancier than the other one...?" she questioned while surveying her surroundings with clear interest.

"Is it even that impressive at this point? It's not like we'll be here most of the time, anyway," Reimu said while looking around in a nonchalant fashion. By the time she was near the bed, Marisa had already sat on it to gaze at the even more scenic window on the side, from which the evening sky and the vast city were visible. "Even you can't stand being cooped up here for more than an hour."

"It might be fancy, but it's also boring," Marisa stated as if uttering a universal truth, "That's just how it is." She shrugged before laying her back on the bed, giving her a view of the ceiling, brightly lit by a chandelier. While she did try to face Reimu in some way, she could not maintain her position, so she gave up on the idea quickly. "Anyway, back to what I was sayin' before we got here, that guy told me my future was gonna be affected by you meetin' somebody all the while Nen was leaking out of him. I thought he was gonna attack me, but he just stood still 'til he finished talking. I can't be too sure what it means, but Nen might not just be good for battlin' people." Marisa frowned, reminded of the most displeasing moment of her entire trip to the city. "The guy himself did deny it was being used, though, if that's any reference."

"He could have been lying to you," Reimu offered, "Since we don't know everything about that power yet, we can't guarantee it's only a power meant to hurt others."

"Didn't you get anything from the people on the 200th floor? That's what you were gonna do, right?" Marisa asked out of curiosity, wondering what Nen-users were typically like. She had wanted to put both of her arms under her head, but decided to settle with one while taking a glimpse of an uncharacteristically nervous Reimu.

"Ah, well..." Reimu muttered, unable to contain a wry smile. "Let's just say that the fortune-teller you met was more accurate than you'd think in the prediction."

Marisa frowned in pure confusion, disconcerted from Reimu's phrasing. "Did the guy actually smell like blood?"

"What?"

"'Cause if he didn't, the stuff the guy said about the person you'd meet having the scent of blood trailin' behind him could mean he's a serial killer instead," Marisa awkwardly added, "and I'm not sure I'd wanna have my future affected by somebody like that."

Reimu pensively hummed, giving serious consideration to something Marisa had only wanted to see as a joke. "It could also mean he'll be bleeding soon if it's just something like the scent of blood trailing behind him," Reimu absent-mindedly said, "But I certainly wouldn't be surprised if he happened to be a serial killer."

"... And that somehow doesn't bother ya?"

At the question, Reimu grimaced. "It'd bother me more if he lied to me, because he gave me a lead on Nen. He could use the power himself, but he decided to be a pain and only give me a hint! If it weren't against the rules here, I'd have beaten him up and gotten everything out of him much faster!" she indignantly exclaimed, swinging her weapon around as if the man she had met were right in front of her.

"Guess I should've expected that one," Marisa dryly noted before wearing an uneasy frown. "Still, the guy I was talking to told me to be careful with the guy you met. You sure his information was trustworthy?"

Reimu could not help but sigh from the question. "If I knew what a Hunter Exam was, I'd have more of an idea on that, but I don't think he was lying, at least."

"That your intuition at work?"

"More or less," Reimu plainly responded while directing her gaze towards the window, where the moon could be faintly seen from behind a building. "Before I got into this tower, I talked to another guy."

"You've sure been meeting a lot of guys," Marisa snidely remarked, her smile wry from the ill-natured joke.

Witnessing that completely, Reimu scowled. "So have you so it's not like I'm the only one," she promptly countered before Marisa could say anything more, her voice carrying great intensity. "Anyway, he told me all sorts of things about how fights worked in this place and from what he was saying, a lot of people get to the 200th floor without having the actual strength to keep up with the fighters there: these people would end up having severe injuries from their first matches, with some even dying. I'm pretty sure the people who lost were going up against Nen-users without being able to use Nen themselves. The weird guy I met was telling me that defeating people who don't know Nen like that is something of a tradition over here, and all things considered, I'm inclined to believe that could be true."

"It'd also be consistent with how easily my arm was broken by a Nen-user," Marisa bitterly interjected. "Can't say I got any room to go against your theory. Besides, for better or worse, your intuition usually works. At least you're actually not being lazy this time around."

Recalling the incident concerning the seasons and the time Marisa had gone as far as lashing out at her over her uncharacteristic passiveness at the same time, Reimu shook her head furiously, as if to shoo the memories away. "Last time was just a fluke! An accident! Don't bring it up!"

"Don't do it again and I'll consider it," Marisa casually retorted before standing from her laid down position all so as to see Reimu's flustered and angered expression. However, now that she had seen it, Marisa, still sat on the bed, found herself bored and thinking of the main topic instead. "Still, didn't ya say somethin' about a Hunter Exam?"

"What, do you know something about it? I feel like I've heard the word 'Hunter' being thrown around before, but I don't know what it stands for at all," Reimu said while frowning, troubled at her lack of information.

"I just heard it today from that fortune-teller guy," Marisa explained, "When I told him he was using Nen, he started assuming I was one of them. I didn't hear most of what he said by that point, but it sounded like he was saying the word 'Hunter'. Before I could ask him what he was even goin' on about, he ran faster than I could catch him."

"That sounds awfully suspicious," Reimu pensively commented. "Maybe there really is a sort of connection between this world's power and Hunters, whatever they are."

"Going by the name, don't they hunt stuff? Maybe he thought I was one because I was on the hunt for all the local snacks." Marisa then proudly smiled. "But in a way, he might've been right about callin' me a Hunter..."

Too deep in thought to pay Marisa's words any mind, Reimu continued to speak so as to organize her thoughts: "Either way, if we put this hypothesis together with the other one, the Nen-users in the 200th floor could be people exposed to the power when they got here or through other means, while all Hunters are guaranteed to know Nen from scratch. If so, it makes sense why he said the Hunter Exam was the 'sure-fire' way to get to know Nen. It might be worth exploring this lead..."

Marisa shrugged at the suggestion. "Better than seeing you win against even more random people with your bare hands."

"Then I suppose we should get out of this tower and start gathering some information on that Hunter Exam thing..." While Reimu would usually be in high spirits now that she had a concrete goal in mind, she seemed dejected instead, something Marisa noticed with mild curiosity. "You know, since all these fights up until now were probably useless..."

 _Ah, so that's what's gettin' to her._ "If it makes ya feel any better, we can interrogate some people in the 200th floor before we leave and make sure," Marisa casually proposed. "It's not like you gotta leave the moment you wake up tomorrow."

"I was already planning on that, but still..." Reimu sighed. "I can just tell I won't get anything. It'll just waste my time again..."

Feeling as though Reimu's current mood was contagious, Marisa grimaced, unable to tolerate it. "If you're gonna do it anyway, it's even more of a time waster complainin' about it, you know? I don't want your gloomy airs ruinin' my vacation."

"Well, sorry for trying to solve the incident, then!" Reimu huffed while looking the way opposite the window, spotting Marisa's plastic bag from afar next to the door out of the room. "And for your information, I'm just tired, not sleepy; it's too early to sleep anyway."

Unconvinced, Marisa stared at a grumpy Reimu blankly, wondering when she would change her mind. "So what are you gonna do? Fight some more?"

"No way," she immediately responded as she walked for the plastic bag and picked it up with a trembling arm, struggling to support its weight. "You bought snacks, didn't you? I'll just eat those, then. You did use my money to get them, so it's only fair."

"Wha **—** That's the opposite of fair! You can't take 'em all yourself!" Marisa jumped out of the bed and dashed for Reimu. "C'mon! Would you let an injured person starve, Reimu?!"

"Would an injured person be this rowdy?" Reimu questioned, only for Marisa to stop moving and glare at Reimu in silence. Her left hand had grazed one of the objects within the bag, and with the way it trembled in place, it seemed ready to snatch it in a moment's notice.

"For real...?" Marisa dryly muttered.

A smile from Reimu was her prompt response. "I'll get this heavy thing to the bed so just tell me which snack is which before we share. Alright?" Reimu pulled the bag away from Marisa's hand and began to walk for the bed without hearing any input from Marisa. To her, Marisa's bashful smile was enough as a sign of approval.

"Should've just told me you were gonna share," Marisa said as she watched Reimu leave the bag over the bed's sheets and positioning herself next to it. "You almost scared me there."

"You're the one who misinterpreted me," Reimu casually responded, "so it's not like it's my fault." She proceeded to take some items of the bag and leaving them near her, as if to searching for something. "Anyway, there better be something good in here, because if I'm not drinking any booze, I've at least got to eat something!"

On that note, Marisa proceeded to join Reimu on the bed, sat on the opposite side near the bed. Afterwards, they had spent the next few hours eating sweets and chatting away in an attempt to leave their heavy thoughts behind for tomorrow, as for now, there was nowhere they could go for a swift end to the incident.

Despite that, deep into the night Reimu's thoughts were still filled with the hint she had received from the strange man: the Hunter Exam. While she had no certainty, she found that perhaps, the course of her adventure had indeed suffered a significant change simply from that one meeting.

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 **Author's Notes:**

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Yeah, got it finished! This chapter was meant to be shorter, but I added an extra scene because I needed a sort of establishing scene so the transition in Chapter 6 wouldn't be as awkward. I wrote the chapter in a certain order, but it's likely I'll be changing that, too, so I won't be talking about the scenes chronologically like I do usually in the Author's Notes; it'll be completely at random this time around.

So, I studied up on Heavens Arena a lot. You seriously have no idea how hard I've been watching the anime and reading the manga for any scraps of Heavens Arena information. I said there were no women, for example, but the 2011 anime has ONE SHOT of a woman talking to a dude in the hallways of the 200th floor, who may or may not be a fighter. Naturally, she could just be a visitor or something, so I can't say this means there were women fighters after all, but even then, it's just that women are probably rarer, not that they don't exist. Another thing is that referees can do pretty much whatever they want in terms of how they evaluate the points in the Hunter x Hunter canon, so I can justify the way the points were attributed in Reimu's match with Wei with the story itself lol. Also, there is no rule stated about fighting in Heavens Arena in places that aren't official matches, but you'd assume that's something that happens. When you get to the 200th floor, by the way, matches start being scheduled for you according to when you're available, as long as you have one match every 90 days. And in the form you fill out on the 200th floor, you likely can say in what way you'll be available and whether you'll be going away or not for the time being. Meanwhile, over at the lower floors, it seems as though fights aren't scheduled for you? It's more like when you're up for fighting, you go to the waiting room until they call and you have a match. In that sense, there isn't much commitment when you're on the lower floors.

This story has been really action-packed, and that's quite rare in stuff I write! I had to write a scene with Reimu fighting since it would feel weird if she were just already at the 200th floor without you seeing her fight even once. Naturally, I wouldn't show you every fight, but I've got to at least show a few to make you feel like Reimu's progressing within the story. Which is where Wei comes along. Dist was another OC meant to be fought, but the fight with him was brief, while Wei's was more dragged out. I mean, in Hunter x Hunter standards, it was super short and didn't have enough exposition, I suppose, but I didn't feel as though I could include as much strategy into this battle when both were fighting with their bare hands. Action isn't something I'm entirely familiar with, but I tried very hard in terms of choreography and making sure Reimu and Wei's skill is shown in a way that doesn't dumb down their fighting prowess. If there's anything weird about the fighting in this story, do tell me exactly what it is because I would totally appreciate it, especially if it helps me improve my action writing considering these won't be the only fights you'll see over at this story.

Anyway, freaking Wei. He thought he was hot shit because back home he beat 'em all, only got his ego stroked further when he got all the way to the 190th floor and found himself looking down on everyone until he swiftly got his ass kicked. His fighting skill's alright, but not quite enough for the 200th floor. Also, if the two dudes shown charging at Gon and Killua on the 190th floor got that far, so can Wei! I wanted Wei not to be taken entirely seriously, but also hold his ground in battle. He's fast as shit, but his spinning move is kind of awkward, hahaha... I tried not to make Reimu get points too fast, but I also didn't want there to be too much fighting filler. Even if I were to drag out the battle, it wouldn't be interesting to just have more beating around the bush considering everybody knew Reimu was going to win. Besides, Reimu is a better fighter; even the referee started getting scared, man. Fitting the announcer in on every moment of the battle is not always possible, so I only include her when her dialogue isn't getting in the way. However, she is still speaking; it's just that I'm not showing everything she says on the pretense that Reimu's ignoring most of it. In essence, you're hearing what Reimu's hearing from the announcer. I wanted something more out of Wei's character in terms of interaction, but I'm not sure there would be much payoff to that seeing as Wei is not a recurring OC and that it's awkward talking in the middle of battle or after winning, and Reimu especially would not be that interested.

Either way, Reimu's been kicking some ass, all the while Marisa's chilling in town, and I'm quite liking the contrast. The first paragraphs of the scene with Marisa, I really liked, but then when the young man appeared, I did have some struggles. Though, I didn't get stumped as badly as I did in the fight with Wei. Since it was just dialogue, it was easier on me, but I was wondering how exactly I wanted to portray the young man and what exactly I wanted him to think of Marisa. I erased a bunch of dialogue from the two, and it definitely became more cryptic that way. There isn't much you get to know about the guy barring the fact he's a fortune-teller and something about Hunters, but for now, that's more or less all you need (by the way, it wasn't just her mentioning Nen that made him assume she's a Hunter; Marisa just thought that herself). When you read the fight with Wei, you kind of get an idea of the scene's purpose, though it has a bunch more. I pretty much don't have purposeless scenes. Still, Marisa was fun enough to write. She's very straightforward, and maybe it's that sort of awkward honesty that makes the stuff she says quirkier. However, while she is honest, she isn't exactly 'honest'. Or more like, she can lie and stuff, but on the inside, Marisa is an honest person. You have to look through both dimensions of the word to understand Marisa's own honesty, which ties in with her straightforwardness. Similarly enough, she is very down-to-earth, and it tends to show. Even so, she does a lot of stuff for the hell of it (she's also rather honest with her desires, but hardworking), and that's what she's doing right now. Exploring places, because yes. Why did she want her fortune told? For the hell of it; might as well, you know? I like reflecting on this because I feel it is the key to figuring out Marisa in all of her humanity. Basically, it's said she's the most straightforward character for a reason.

I have to admit there were parts I was having difficulty with while I was writing the dialogue between Miko and Reisen. Reisen herself is a moderately easy character to write, and I've talked about that before. However, Miko was more troubling because the circumstances that she is being placed in require a lot of thought on what she would do, so I put a LOT of thought into how she would respond to this incident. No, I don't just like inserting Miko in every incident. To be honest, I wanted to include Futo but I can't, and that's what I'm biased towards, if anything ;_; In this crossover, I'm trying to write characters that matter to the narrative in some way, so while there won't be as many appearances and cameos, there also should be a decrease in contrivances that would justify said appearances. Anyway, I do love Miko. She's a great character in her own right, utterly underrated and full of strange stigmas. As far as I can see from her official appearances, she's a badass lol Casual, but dignified, composed and cool, with an assertive edge. I made sure she sounded on the slightly polite, but assertive side, and actually wanted little traces of femininity in the way she speaks in order to represent the original Japanese speech pattern. She actually got more assertive as the games progressed, but usually she's smart, charismatic and just overall a great character to follow. Naturally, she has her set of flaws, but that's part of why she's interesting and great as a character: because she's an over-confident badass who thinks everything will go her way who'll sometimes not even listen to you, all the while being open-minded (kinda), strangely casual and dignified.

It's rather awkward thinking of Miko and Eientei cooperating with each other, but judging from Touhou 14.5, it doesn't seem as though Miko is adverse to them? **Edit:** Damn boi dat Touhou 15.5 completely decided to have Miko start thinking Eientei was actually behind Touhou 14.5 and not liking them as much but I think it would simultaneously fit Miko to use those she doesn't like for her own ends (and seriously this is the only thing in my way whyyyyy)? However, it's definitely a strange combination. It's almost like making the Moriya Shrine and the Scarlet Devil Mansion work together: it could hypothetically happen under good circumstances, but it's strange to imagine, in a way. The ending of the scene in Gensokyo was rather tense, though. This side is mostly very suspenseful, and a lot is still to be known. I'm honestly hoping you keep up, since there's a lot to keep track of. Though, I would never make it so you wouldn't be able to! The best part of reading these kinds of things is having all the pieces and see them come together. On an unrelated note, I rather like Reisen's disguised form, but that's probably because the artist of Forbidden Scrollery drew Reisen so well.

After the scene with Marisa, I wasn't exactly sure how you'd perceive the scene with Reimu after the battle with Wei. I mean, would you be able to tell apart OC from canon character even with the lack of names? I'm of course talking about whether my writing would be enough for you to see that the person talking to Marisa was an OC and the one talking to Reimu was definitely totally certainly undoubtedly Hisoka. Or well, 'THE MAN'. Look, I slipped up a bunch of times writing the narration; I really wanted to refer to him by name as well. But I couldn't just go like 'Hey, there's this guy unknown to Reimu. Hisoka starts talking...' Like, where's the progression? The narration is centered on Reimu, and Reimu doesn't know Hisoka, and there wasn't much of a chance for him to introduce himself... Or so I'd want to say, but there was a chance for him to introduce himself and I just opted out of it. Why? Because this DUDE has never introduced himself once! Not once in the entirety of Hunter x Hunter! I don't think he'd hesitate to give out his name if prompted, so he wasn't avoiding the question with that retort; he was instead shifting the focus of the conversation to Reimu. Regardless, I didn't feel like Hisoka introducing himself was important enough to think about in the scene, and I didn't want things to be derailed in any way.

I'd love to say Hisoka is fun to write or even rant about how he's not, but he's actually okay...? Neither easy nor hard. Just sort of... Awkward, for various reasons. Still, I studied my ass off before writing Hisoka. I re-watched scenes, re-read the manga, all of it to make sure I'd nail the guy, even though I already had a good idea of him beforehand. The first thing you'll notice while reading the manga, though, is that Hisoka's thoughts are in plain sight to the reader like it's nothing; there isn't much mystery to how he thinks. As such, I don't feel the need to portray him as very mysterious or enigmatic. If anything, the more you look through his scenes, the more you see he's actually kind of conversational? Or more like, he's so confident in himself that the only kind of tension that comes from this guy is sexual lol Even in a fight, unless the opponent is extremely formidable (man, in his fight with Chrollo he was trying so hard to figure his strategy out), he puts on airs and makes it seem as though he is completely unfazed with things. He has a strangely confident, cold, but casual presence. However, when I say cold, I mean, unsympathetic cold; as in, uncaring. Because in terms of demeanour, Hisoka is tendentially giving no shits or having fun with things. It doesn't surprise anyone, but he's got kind of a playful edge, and the times he chuckles or snickers or makes random noises in the anime is uncountable. As we also already know, he's a complete follower of his own desires; a true hedonist. Living life to enjoy it, one boner at a time. Seeing as he lives for himself and his own enjoyment, he's fixated on people he considers strong (since he gets off to strength and battling strong people), but in the same way you see a toy or something. A momentary plaything; after it gets boring, you throw it to the trash. He doesn't have true attachments to things; he just wants to jack off, man.

... I don't know how people can see that as yandere with Hisoka even though he's like the opposite of yandere (no obsessive attachments), but you know. Romance and Hisoka don't go together. I did try my hand at reading attempts, all of which naturally did not succeed. I think the most you could expect out of this guy is a fling, because romance implies him caring? And LOL Hisoka caring. Good joke. Hisoka is as evil as it gets, and I appreciate how solidly evil he is because that makes him a very effective antagonist and character in the story. People either love or hate Hisoka, but I'm in the middle ground; I've got a very unbiased perspective when it comes to Hisoka. I think he's great to ironically like, but I neither like nor hate the guy, creepy as he is. Still, writing him was cool.

I didn't think about it much while I was starting the story out, but come on. When it comes to people Hisoka would be very interested in, Reimu fits the bill in every way possible: strong as hell? Check. Talented to the point she has practically limitless potential? Check. Rare abilities that aid her in battle, making her a unique opponent? Check. An unwavering resolve and confidence in her skill that while hard to break, would be greatly satisfying if they did, therefore feeding Hisoka's sado-masochistic tendencies? Check. Hell, even in the sense that Reimu's a quirky person and more or less a looker just fits right in, it's kind of terrifying that I brought these two together considering the massive boners occurring in the future from Hisoka. Naturally, even in this scene, Hisoka had a hard time resisting them urges. But then again, it was Reimu who started the fight; she also just wanted to take someone down, to be honest. In that sense, Reimu and Hisoka are kind of on the same wavelength? Both want to fight. Reimu only wasn't having much fun in the arena because she couldn't use her weapons or abilities much. I feel really weird saying something like 'Reimu and Hisoka are on the same wavelength' but they honestly played off of each other surprisingly well. Granted, Reimu can interact with pretty much everyone in a fun manner, but I thought I'd struggle more when Hisoka and Reimu actually worked just fine. My favorite moment was the small scuffle between the two: Reimu's leg got bashed against a wall, oh damn!

Though, now you must be wondering: why Hisoka? Why make him the first canon character to show up? There's a simple reason: he's the most likely character to be in Heavens Arena at around the time the story takes place. Hisoka fights every now and then, and according to the wiki, he had participated in the two last matches before the Heavens Arena arc, so it only became more convenient to have him around. Even then, I definitely could have just made Reimu start the story somewhere else. The story would have had a much different course if I changed where Reimu started off to the point it intrigues me, too, but this start was actually the smoothest way to get Reimu on the right track without using a predictable formula. Though, in other instances, Reimu could have met canon characters faster. Well, either way, while the scene with Hisoka went alright, the final scene, I had some trouble with.

I don't know, Marisa isn't easy to write for me? And I wasn't sure how to end it. Though, Marisa shone in a lot of moments of that particular scene, so I think she also did a good job here. The ending feels similar to the last chapter, but I think it might be heavier in some way, since it's implying a great change to the story. I feel like Reimu and Marisa together make for the more lighthearted parts of the story so far, and I like that, even if Reimu has been doing a lot of brainstorming. She doesn't look like that kind of character, but there were times in canon where she was in deep thought about things, piecing them together. Meanwhile, Marisa's the other side of the coin, since she isn't thinking as hard about the incident. By the way, I'm not sure if I'm focusing too much on her being injured or if I'm not portraying how the fracture's affecting her enough physically (since emotionally, she'd be fine). I like writing certain physical details, though in certain times throughout scenes with dialogue, I never really know what more I can add to what's happening in terms of the surroundings and gestures. Anyway, seeing as the story is moving in another direction, I hope you can look forward to the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 6

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - Omg yes, though Shion only stuck around for a little while in the shrine (dat feel when Reimu begrudgingly admits Shion staying there wouldn't make a difference because the shrine's desolate already lol). To be honest, just seeing people mention Touhou 15.5 makes me wanna talk about it so hard, but I don't know how much I can spoil at this point in time because it's new and all. I think Reimu's speciality is succeeding without trying and trying without succeeding (mostly because she doesn't even know how to try properly), so she amassed wealth without even trying over here when her attempts at getting people to her shrine end up failing. Though, the chapter you're talking about more or less clarifies that Reimu just isn't cut out for diligent effort, which makes the Hakurei Shrine reflect Reimu's easygoing personality, in a way: maybe the Hakurei Shrine was always meant to be the kind of shrine that just goes with the flow, and acts when it's most needed; maybe Reimu just wants to feel good about herself when she's trying but doesn't care all that much beyond that. Well, the chapter can lend to a lot of interpretations, some straightforward and others even metaphysical, but I personally took it as a more straightforward 'Reimu just doesn't like trying hard' interpretation. Sucks that Reimu can't actually use the money she's getting here in Gensokyo, though! Whatever the case, thank you very much for reviewing, once again! I was honestly fearing I'd driven you away with my over-enthusiastic Reimu dicussion but I'm glad this is not the case! Hopefully this other Reimu discussion does not constitute as the final nail in the coffin, either! ^^'**

Since the last chapter, this story got 4 favorites and 4 followers, which is pretty awesome! Thank you very much! I'd say more stuff to justify me saying it's pretty awesome, but I feel like I'd be repeating myself as all my reasoning still stands; the fact that it's awesome continues being true, after all. Regardless, I advise you to take my made-up sea creatures with quite a few grains of salt scientifically-speaking, and reserve the rest of that salt to whatever names I randomly make up, too!

Enjoy!

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 **Chapter 6: The Easygoing Flow of the Foreign Waves**

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 _"Can you tell me all you know about Nen?" Reimu had plainly asked a group of three men standing by the hallway of the 200th floor, who had been talking amongst themselves in a quiet, though relaxed manner. However, the moment they had heard her speak, they frowned in displeasure, confusion evident in their expressions._

 _"Nen? Where did you hear that name from?" the man in the center had asked, only to glance at the other two, almost as if to communicate with them._

 _Reimu had huffed impatiently before crossing her arms. "Does it matter?" she had snapped and locked her eyes with the man who had spoken first as though he were an enemy to exterminate, but her trembling hands had been smothered by her arms for a reason, and Reimu had been attentive to the rules of Heavens Arena. "I just need to know more about it. That's why I got this far in the first place."_

 _"That so..." the man in the left had muttered while struggling to suppress a smile. Noticing that from simply his shaky voice, the other two had soon started to unwillingly imitate him. The group of three had then snickered almost in unison, as if relishing in her ignorance. "You can always fight one of us and find out. Two birds with one stone, as they say."_

 _"You wish!"_

While that instance in particular was the most memorable because it was the first time she had gone up to people on the 200th floor to ask about Nen, the following times she had approached other fighters yielded lacking results, as none of them had been inclined to reveal anything to her, even if threatened. Due to the rule forbidding fights outside designated matches, all threatened fighters would distance themselves from Reimu or warn her of the rule without deigning to tell her anything about Nen. Unfortunately, the interrogations had gone exactly as that strange man had told her, and according to Marisa, who had also endeavored to ask around, no information had been attained on her end either from the moment they had started assuming she had no idea of what Nen was, as they had all been expecting to take advantage of that fact when battling her (they were naturally unaware of the fact that Marisa was not a fighter).

The memories pertaining to her time with the fighters on the 200th floor served to have Reimu's mood momentarily sour, but at the same time, she felt a weight was off of her shoulders. Now that she knew there was nothing else for her in Heavens Arena and she had deemed herself unavailable for a match, Reimu found that she was more than ready to move forward and explore the lead the man had left her. At the moment, she and Marisa were sat by a group of eight other people inside a local bar, all of them focusing their attention on responding to Reimu's inquiry: "What is a Hunter Exam?" At least, Reimu noted, this interrogation had been proceeding smoothly.

The oldest member of the group, an elderly but jolly man with a bald head was the first one to respond in a succinct, easygoing manner as he grabbed onto a large glass of an alchoholic drink Reimu had keen interest in trying for herself if not for her duties: "Lotsa people go try it every year and some of 'em never come back. It's a test that's all 'bout if ye have what it takes to become a Hunter." As if unable to contain the urge to drink any longer, the old man directed the glass to his mouth and swallowed almost half of the liquid on the monstrous glass; Marisa was already adverting her eyes from the sight in order to suppress her own jealousy. "Interested in the job?" he questioned after taking a deep breath and almost crashing the glass onto the round, wooden table from the sheer force and speed of his rugged hands, garnering glances from half of the seated people, most of them unacquainted with the old man.

A taciturn young man sitting next to a woman in a ponytail could not help but grimace in reaction to said old man's words, as his glance in his direction carried hints of disgust. "You shouldn't," he asserted before casting his sharp gaze down at his modest drink. "There's no job more dangerous than that. The exam's just as dangerous, but being a Hunter involves catching all sorts of things, including criminals."

The woman in a ponytail next to him, though her distance from him implied a lack of familiarity, pensively hummed before absent-mindedly uttering, "But then again, I can see why they'd want to be Hunters." Her gaze was far from her drink, unfocused from the deep thought, but she spoke quickly and conversationally in contrast, as though her consideration did not match her words. "I hear there are a lot of benefits that come with a Hunter's License, like most establishments serving you for free, or entering all sorts of places without restriction. Besides, a Hunter can also discover ancient ruins and artifacts; doesn't that sound kind of exciting?"

Another young man beside her playfully bumped his fist onto the side of the young woman's shoulder before grabbing at his own glass with his other hand, but he hardly spared it a glance in light of his friend's demeanour. "What, you wanna be a Hunter now, Elly? You'd barely make it to the First Phase, let alone pass the exam," he retorted, only to then chuckle loudly, having imagined the woman in a ponytail, Elly running through a jungle, defenseless against her opponents.

Elly frowned and shot a glare the young man's way, but the negative reaction only seemed to fuel his amusement seeing as he grinned in return. "Geez," Elly uttered, "can't I see things from the other perspective every once in a while? There are people wanting to be Hunters for a reason!"

"I had a friend who took the exam three years ago," a middle-aged man interjected from the left, sat next to the old man who happened to be seated near Reimu. "Got as far as the second phase. Since then, he's given up on the dream. Told me the exam was probably made by the devil. Heh..." Taking the glass nearby with his right hand, he sipped from it, leading Reimu and Marisa to believe he had finished relaying what information he planned on giving.

On the other end of the large table they were sat at was a man wearing glasses, his expression weary. Though he sat next to the cheerful young man, he kept a distance, and slouched against his chair to the point he could only be properly seen from the neck up. "If I remember it right, the exam was at around this time, but..." The man shifted his gaze from his drink to Reimu, and then to Marisa, only to grimace. "I'd give up if I were you."

The young man who had been teasing Elly followed the gaze of the man beside him, which settled on Marisa, and frowned in pure confusion. "Wait, though, are you planning on taking the exam with that injury?" he asked as his eyebrows rose and he set his glass down just so he could point at Marisa's arm. "Isn't that kind of like suicide?"

Marisa scratched the back of her head as she considered the question, only to awkwardly respond, "Well, it can't be _that_ bad."

"Wait, who said she was taking the exam?" Reimu immediately questioned while facing the young man rather than Marisa, placing her arms over the table as though to match the assertive edge of her voice. "I'm asking for myself only."

"Huh?" Marisa looked towards Reimu in pure doubt, while Reimu returned that look just as intensely upon hearing what she confusedly perceived to be Marisa's voice.

"What?" Reimu crossed her arms and scowled, feeling as though Marisa was somehow not on the same page as her.

As they glared each other's way in silence, the old man calmly offered, "Well, how 'bout ye leave all that for later? Fights're only good for souring the drinks."

Marisa and Reimu begrudgingly turned to the old man, who grinned brightly at them as if to oppose the tension. Meanwhile, the man next to Elly seemed to be seething with rage, his mouth twitching uncomfortably. "You can't underestimate the Hunter Exam," he claimed, "It's nothing two young women, one of them injured at that, can just try their hand at. You could die!"

The middle-aged man right of him huffed condescendingly after glancing his way. "That's not for you to decide, is it, Sol? Besides, I don't know about the injured one, but the one paying our drinks right now isn't just a normal woman: over at Heavens Arena, she's already reached the 200th floor."

Elly's eyes widened in shock as she stared at Reimu, processing that her relatively short and feminine stature could somehow take the brunt of a multitude of attacks from muscled men. "Seriously?! I've never heard of a woman fighter getting that far...!" Reimu herself was smiling in pride of her acknowledged accomplishments, while the two older men near her suppressed the urge to snicker from the innocent reaction. Although she had finished speaking as well, Elly's gaze was affixed to Reimu, as her awe did not seem to fade.

The young man next to her slowly nodded in light of his friend's statements, pondering on them somewhat as he saw Reimu's intensely carefree stance and frowned from a mix of doubt and confusion. "Me neither, but with that kind of strength, you might just make it...? Still," he said, "December's almost over. Can people apply for the exam at this point?"

Hearing an unfamiliar combination of words, Reimu blinked as her smile, now apprehensive in nature, threatened to disappear. "A-apply?" Reimu asked, her voice strained with unease. "Do I have to do something to get in?"

The old man heartily chuckled before retorting, "Were ye expectin' to waltz in without identification? Ye gotta fill out a form if ye wanna enter!" Then, he glanced at the young man near Elly and hummed, deeply pondering on Reimu's options. "Then 'gain, can't say ye got any chance of enterin' now..."

 _So the guy Reimu met did trick her..._ Marisa thought, unable to mask her disappointment as she stared at Reimu with an unenthusiastic frown. However, noticing Reimu's hands trembling in what she assumed to be anger, Marisa figured she was not the only one feeling that way. "They can still enter..." the weary-looking man suddenly uttered, garnering the attention of everyone at the table. "Since the bad applicants get trimmed in the preliminaries anyway, you can send an overdue application as long as you pay a small fine. Luckily, they've still got time."

Another man abruptly hit the table out of reflex, causing the youngest on the table to flinch until they noted his purely incredulous expression and agape mouth. "Woah, Deann," he uttered, "Since when did you know so much about the Hunter Exam?"

Deann shrugged, his nonchalant frown contrasting with the lighthearted mood permeating the group (excepting Sol, who still appeared displeased). "My uncle's got connections with the Hunter Association, so I'm more or less up to date. I don't plan on becoming a Hunter, though."

Unbeknownst to the people of the group Reimu had gathered, both Reimu and Marisa had simultaneously relaxed their tense stances and their gazes were now sharp with focus knowing there was actually still a chance that they had not been tricked. Marisa in particular was smiling from the development, while Reimu was glancing at Sol, who had gone as quiet as the other members in the group who had yet to speak. "That's pretty convenient," Marisa commented, "I thought we'd only get people who know as much as a normal person does over here; guess we got lucky."

Meanwhile, Reimu regarded the man with a pensive frown, her mind undergoing various simulations of filling out a foreign application form. "Then, could you bring us wherever we need to go to sign up and fill the application form for me?" Reimu plainly asked, her neutral expression and speech lending to little politeness in her question. However, realizing the favor she was requesting was strange from the group's confused stares on her, Reimu continued to speak so as to supply a simple logical reasoning: "I can't read a single letter off of your strange alphabet and don't know a thing about this Hunter business, so I'd rather have someone with me to help out directly."

Troubled by the sudden suggestion, Deann grimaced for a moment, especially when he noticed the man next to him wink his way (much to Reimu's confusion). "Well, I _could_..." Deann quietly responded as he straightened his sitting position and elbowed the friend beside him so as to prevent him from speaking out and hopefully to make him see his own plan for the matter rather than mere delusions. "But not for free." He smiled, and his friend blinked as he attempted to understand his thought process; with a flinch, he decided to keep quiet and averted his gaze from the situation while mirroring his smile. Then, Deann's index finger joined with his thumb, and his other fingers lay horizontally to represent money; money Reimu had to pay.

Reimu eyed that gesture for a moment, only to sigh. "Fine, fine," she carelessly said. "I'll pay for your drinks _and_ that, but don't overdo it, you hear me? It's not like I'm made out of money or anything." Most of the people in the group shot skeptic looks in her direction, thinking that no person who reached the 200th floor of Heavens Arena could possibly be nothing less than rich. Some even shifted their bedgruding eyes to Deann for his simple scheme, while Reimu was entirely unaware of the matter, waving her hand about dismissively with a flimsy frown. "Besides, Marisa's living expenses aren't going to pay themselves while I'm off taking the exam without her, you know?"

Marisa's head snapped in Reimu's direction. "Huh?"

Reimu turned to face Marisa. "What?"

... As they glared each other's way again, they realized that something about their plans was severely wrong.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Within the few days Reimu and Marisa were forced to wait for the delivery of the flier detailing the approximate location of the Hunter Exam site, Marisa had returned to Gensokyo. Her destination was, unfortunately, not her own home, though she had bothered to dump the souvenirs she had bought within the item stacks of her messy house before asking Okina where her door closest to Eientei was. Upon her arrival, Marisa gave her a box of pills that had been empty for quite a while; painkillers, or so Eirin had told her. They certainly worked, as Marisa had not felt any pain in her arm at all for the past days, but the current check-up was centered in prescribing another kind of pills to Marisa.

"Why do I have to stop takin' the painkillers? You wanna make me suffer or what?" she plainly asked, though Marisa herself had no clue whether she needed them or not. In fact, she could not possibly understand how to treat her own injury in general, and simply questioned Eirin for the sake of voicing something out.

Eirin thinly frowned, but did not take to commenting on the fact that she could detect Marisa's lack of consideration for her own situation. "The pain is only supposed to last a few days after the surgery," Eirin said, "If you were still hurting right now, it would be a rather bad sign."

Marisa slowly nodded, as if processing the information just as slowly despite the succinct nature of Eirin's explanation. "Alright, but what's up with these new pills?" Marisa shook the new box with her left hand and momentarily relished in the chaotic sound of the swaying pills without averting her gaze from Eirin. "You tryin' to scam me out of my money or something?"

"You'd think I'd have better uses for my time than to scam money out of someone who clearly doesn't even have any," Eirin retorted with ease as she looked Marisa up and down, finding that the only difference she could spot in her was the large bag strapped to her back and its foreign design, though she had immediately assumed it was stolen. Naturally, she kept that thought to herself, and watched Marisa negative shift in expression from her remark with a hint of amusement.

"Damn," Marisa flatly uttered, "I might need painkillers for that one." Marisa grimaced and warily stepped back from Eirin, as if to prevent a sudden attack. "Besides, I'm way loaded right now, just sayin'. Sure, it's foreign scraps of paper I can't use in Gensokyo and Reimu's the one who got all the money, but I don't focus on details."

Said details ironically tugged at Eirin's mind as her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Oh? And why exactly has Reimu been collecting foreign money?" Eirin asked, curiosity intricately laced in her inquiry despite her composed stance. She sat on a stool by a desk, in which varying vials and equipment unknown to Marisa were neatly organized on each corner, while a notepad rested in the centered, unused as of now.

"She got it fighting a buncha guys in a tower," Marisa said before shrugging, uncaring of the matter. Then, she flashed a wry smile Eirin's way when recalling the rest of the circumstances behind the newly-earned money. "Long story short, she's tryin' to beat the mastermind up in another dimension and I stuck along for the ride, so I'm sharing in her wealth."

In face of Marisa's open demeanor, Eirin responded to her smile with a bright smile of her own, displaying nothing but genuine delight in her recent luck when it came to information-gathering: Reisen's latest report on her meeting in the Human Village flashed as a mental image while she stared at Marisa. "Another dimension, now? My, my, that sounds like quite a journey," Eirin commented as though overwhelmingly fascinated, but she stressed on keeping the composure she still held regardless of the fact that Marisa was supposedly talking of a different dimension altogether; as far as Eirin could see, Marisa would not be able to lie without being noticed. "And how exactly do you plan on appearing for the check-ups while on this adventure of yours?"

"Don't worry, I've got a way," Marisa loosely answered, having given little thought to the question, "Don't really know how it works, but it's a way, alright. Speakin' of stuff I don't know much about, what are these next pills for, though?" She shook the box again for good measure, ignoring an inner voice remarking on the childishness of her actions.

"They are supposed to aid the recovery process," Eirin promptly explained in hopes of reaching the heart of the matter faster, even if she herself would have liked to offer a more detailed overview of her own medicine. "While a fracture of that magnitude would normally take a maximum of six months to fully heal, I'm sure you'd like a speedy recovery, so I decided to aid you in minimizing that time."

"For a price?" Marisa begrudgingly questioned.

Eirin nodded. "For a price. Though..." She then paused to think and crossed her legs as she confidently regarded the magician before her. "A discount certainly isn't out of the question, in your case."

"A discount? What's the catch?"

"Well, you seem to be having a rather eventful time in that other dimension you mentioned, and I'm admittedly curious about the details," Eirin said. "Depending on your willingness to share this with me, I may or may not even ignore the price altogether. How about it?"

Marisa cast her eyes to the floor and pondered on the offer with a hand covering her mouth almost reflexively. _I don't know what she wants, but she's definitely after my information for some reason,_ Marisa thought, _Then again, she's been all over this incident lately. Maybe she's thinkin' it's some Lunarian business again, but I'm pretty sure the Lunarians don't have a lick of influence in other dimensions. Guess she's just hypothesizing, then._ "These pills you gave me; they'll work, right?"

"At the very least, they're sure to cut your recovery time by a few weeks."

 _She's made medicine way more amazing than this,_ Marisa thought, _She's gotta be making them like that just to get me comin' back. Not that I got much of a choice._ "No side effects either, right?"

"Of course. Who do you take me for?"

Marisa took a moment to stare at Eirin, as if in an attempt to scrutinize her intentions further, but the dead end present by her blank mind resulted in mild frustration to surface. In the end, Marisa simply concluded that she really did not feel like analyzing the overly complicated minds of strange moon people before stating, "Fine, it's a deal. But you better not be trickin' me somehow. I'm not up for trouble if it's got something to do with my health."

Eirin softly chuckled, using one of her hands to cover her mouth. "How needlessly cautious of you," she remarked. "And I hardly even have a reason to trick you in the first place."

"I mean it, though; I want my pills legitimately free of charge for once. Beats havin' to skip out on the payment **—** "

"Hm?"

" _Eventually_ gather the money to pay up the debt," Marisa asserted before pocketing the box of pills once and for all, only to face a snickering Eirin with a weary frown. "Anyway, cast's brand-new, my pills are brand-new and everything's fine, so I should be outta here by now, but guess I should tell you what's up with the other dimension, huh?" Marisa looked around for a place to sit down, and settled on a nearby stool from where she could see Eirin from the side. "Where do you want me to start?"

Eirin turned her way and smiled. "From the very beginning, if you would."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Aren't you regretting this idea already?" Sheer frustration led a bitter Reimu to tap her foot incessantly while resisting the urge to bite her right thumb's nail, which touched her mouth while her chin rested over two other fingers. "Your arm's broken, remember? You do remember that, right? You do know that I'm going to watch out for you throughout the whole exam and that it'll slow everything down, right?" She voiced her questions quickly, in such a way that Marisa could hardly even comprehend what she was saying.

Even so, Marisa did not need to hear her words to know that she was undoubtedly both anxious and angry, especially as she had been like that for more than two days now. With no motivation to raise her voice or use the same arguments as in the previous days, Marisa simply uttered, "I get that you're bummed out over this, but it's honestly way too late to complain." Marisa placed her left hand over her eyes in order to block the heavy sunlight and see the vast horizon. "Ship's already sailed, after all. There's no turnin' back."

Naturally, all that Marisa could see was the ocean, something she had never truly witnessed before while in Gensokyo. It stretched out far and wide, swaying haphazardly according to the clashing waves, affecting the massive wooden ship that shifted in unison and caused a few of the people at the deck to lean against the ship's edge and vomit from seasickness. Curious about the sea, Marisa and Reimu were leaning by a mast of the ship on the deck simply to observe it, but Marisa's feet did not connect to the floor. Her broom in the air, Marisa was sitting on it while her feet kicked the air seemingly out of boredom. Though Reimu would occasionally float in the air, usually when she appeared the most pale, Marisa had chosen to avoid seasickness entirely by not feeling the shaky balance of the ship underneath her feet.

Marisa's position midair gathered a considerable amount of stares from the other people embarking, most of them applicants for the Hunter Examination. Reimu, who had decided to float as well, only ignored the blank expressions of the people nearby and sighed, almost as if in resignation. Her hand rose to her face, covering it partially. "I know that much..." Reimu ultimately muttered after a moment of silence. "But you're supposed to be taking it easy right now. Are you sure you can hold your ground like that? This is serious business."

"You're worryin' too much, for a change," Marisa promptly retorted. "It's not like I've got a death wish. If it gets too dangerous or boring, I'll just quit and watch ya from afar." Reimu could not help but look to the side and avoid Marisa while the mental image of being continuously cheered on during the Hunter Exam surged in her mind. Marisa had luckily failed to notice that out of Reimu because she was too focused on staring at the sea. Taking from it a strange sense of wonder, perhaps due to the great differences between Gensokyo and the world she was at, Marisa smiled. "Either way, I just gotta get to know how this exam thing works; it sounds way too interesting to leave alone. If I miss this chance, I won't have any other."

"Well, I am a bit curious about the exam so it's not like I don't see your point..." Reimu said in an absent-minded fashion, surveying the sea for any signs of land. "Anyway, just don't trouble me or get in the way of solving the incident. Ever." Despite having her focus continue to be on the horizon, Reimu's expression was a stern frown, as if Marisa were right in front of her to see it and be intimidated by her serious presence. "And don't do anything stupider than what you're doing right now either."

"I already said I'd be careful." Marisa shifted her gaze to the side so as to directly oppose Reimu's, though the horizon remained the same cerulean sea and remarkably clear morning sky. "So at least let me enjoy the trip." Unbeknownst to her, Reimu glanced at Marisa, figuring she was similarly irritated at the exchange.

"Hi there!" It was while Reimu was turned to the right, to Marisa, that an unfamiliar voice had spoken from the left, its source not in her line of sight. Both Reimu and Marisa faced their left in moderate surprise, only to tilt their heads down to neutrally gaze upon a boy no older than 16. Despite his short stature, his expression was bright with excitement, and his stance loose, but friendly. He grinned their way before directing slightly widened, curious eyes to Marisa's position midair. "You sure look like an interesting duo. I've never seen people floating in the air before, I've got to admit," he conversationally remarked. "I'm guessing you're applicants, too?"

"You takin' the Hunter Exam?" Marisa asked, her voice entirely nonchalant even in light of his friendly presence. "'Cause if you are, you're right about that guess."

Meanwhile, Reimu crossed her arms while staring at the boy intently. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Oops, forgot to introduce myself there," the boy uttered with an apologetic smile. Regardless, Reimu and Marisa noted he was entirely lacking in apprehension in the way he so assertively gesticulated with his hands and had full control of his expressions. They saw that as not befitting a normal boy, but seeing as the people in the ship all aimed to pass the Hunter Exam, at least Marisa assumed abnormality was to be expected out of applicants for the exam. The boy placed a hand behind his head in order to adjust his headband, while another was stretched out between Reimu and Marisa, conveying some form of charisma. "I'm Eorn. I want to become a Beast Hunter, so I'm trying the exam this year. What about you two?"

"Reimu Hakurei," Reimu plainly stated. "I'm taking the exam because it's the only lead I have to get to someone I want to beat up."

At the casually-worded yet plainly outlandish response, Eorn could not help but flinch, as if Reimu's words had carried along an unknown, unseen intensity. "Huh?"

"And I'm Marisa Kirisame; just an ordinary magician on vacation." Marisa shrugged, almost mirroring Reimu's neutrality towards her own introduction. "I'm joinin' her for the ride."

"Uh, wait a second..." Eorn gestured for them to wait with two outstretched hands, as if overwhelmed. "So, to get things straight..." Eorn then pointed at Reimu. "You want to defeat someone, right? Are you saying you want to be a Blacklist Hunter?"

"Hunter what, now?"

Eorn resisted the urge to sigh before pointing at Marisa. "Alright, and you're taking the Hunter Exam because she is?"

"You're makin' it sound like I do everything Reimu does. I'm just here 'cause it sounds interesting," Marisa countered, her voice's tone slightly indignant. Reimu was scowling her way, and while Marisa had noticed that, she was promptly ignoring it as she deliberately averted her eyes.

Naturally, Eorn could feel the tension in the air around them and was unable to keep a smile any longer. "Uh-huh... I was expecting to meet a lot of weird people, but you two definitely take the cake."

Reimu crossed her arms. "How rude," she remarked. "You're the one who came up to us all of a sudden."

"Oh, I wasn't insulting you," Eorn said, "Considering you're taking the Hunter Exam, you might as well take that as a compliment."

"That's one roundabout compliment," Marisa interjected.

Eorn apologetically smiled. "Well, I'm not used to dealing with people like you. By the way, aren't you injured? Even if it looks like you're not taking the exam seriously, it's not a good idea to be this reckless about it. Ms. Reimu could get away with just that bruise on her leg, but your arm is broken." The recollection of the reason why her leg had still been so darkly bruised warranted a scowl out of Reimu, who inwardly cursed that she had failed to predict the strange man's attack even now.

While Eorn had been unable to discern the reason for Reimu's sudden change in mood, he was at least certain Marisa was grimacing precisely due to his question, so he took to focusing on her specifically. "Hey, I've already been nagged enough by this shrine maiden next to me as it is..." Marisa briefly glanced at Reimu, whose sour gaze almost mirrored hers. "I don't need somebody else doing same thing for her."

Eorn hummed for a moment as he appeared to be taking in all that Marisa and Reimu told him. Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa took advantage of his lack of a response to glare at each other, uncaring of the boy's strangely inquisitive behavior. "I couldn't get much of a feel for your circumstances, but you're a fun duo, at least. I thought you'd be more like Ms. Siper, but I guess I underestimated the uniqueness of the women taking the exam," Eorn said, though his voice seemed to soften the moment he saw Reimu and Marisa shift their attention to him. "Either way, it was nice meeting you two, but I'm a bit of an erratic guy, so I'm hoping to get to know everybody on the ship. Maybe we'll talk again, who knows? It's bye-bye for now!" Then, with a friendly wave, Eorn dashed away from the two, heading for a group of four men nearby, all of them contrastingly tall and gruff-seeming. Regardless, Reimu and Marisa noted as they saw him off, Eorn was completely unfazed, almost as if familiarized with the tension.

"What a busybody..." Reimu vacantly muttered as she continued to stare at the boy, her expression nonchalant.

"Not like you're any different right now," Marisa snidely added, her smile wry with ill intent.

Reimu's attention immediately snapped to Marisa, whose eyebrows were raised in a taunting sign of doubt. On the other hand, Reimu projected through her fiery gaze a considerable amount of irritation, though that in itself failed to intimidate Marisa, who was more than used to Reimu's personality. However, along with displaying a face of bitter anger, Reimu had similarly raised up her weapon, almost as if preparing to brandish it.

At that, Marisa could not help but apprehensively frown. "Now, c'mon, Reimu. You wouldn't go all-out on an injured person."

 **. . .**

... Reimu sighed while lowering her weapon again. "That joke is seriously getting old."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

With the slowly passing time, Reimu and Marisa had long but gotten bored of staring at the sea. Similarly, they had talked to each other enough that they no longer yielded any enjoyment from continuing to do so. As such, they were now silent, both of their expressions indicating an apathetic tiredness. Unenthusiastic eyes were still cast towards the sea, if only because there was nothing else to gaze at where they were, and the ship itself held nothing of interest.

Though relaxing, the quiet mood was dulling Reimu and Marisa's senses, with Marisa's eyelids heavy and attempting to permanently close for an afternoon nap. Reimu, on the other hand, was still standing, her position unsuitable for falling asleep. She had verified that Eorn was still talking to other applicants minutes ago, but even then almost felt like needlessly repeating the action out of sheer boredom. As nothing else could entertain her, Reimu surrendered to her thoughts, all of them pertaining to the mastermind and the incident.

Currently, Reimu was unable to take care of both problems. She was chasing a lead, but it did not guarantee a chance to discover the mastermind's location. Additionally, she noted that she was taking longer than expected to progress with the incident at all, longer than she would have preferred. However, she had no way to quicken the process; that fact frustrated her to no end. _There's really no point thinking about it by now, huh..._ While she had the time to muse on the situation, she knew that no better solution would surge in her mind, especially as there simply were no leads to guide her in a straightforward direction. She glanced towards Marisa, who had finally lost to her own drowsiness. "She's sure carefree..."

A collectivity of shock-induced shouts and exclamations brought Reimu's boredom to an abrupt halt as she saw the ship sway at an unnaturally strong rate, dangerously leaning to the right. Some men slid off from the left only to hold on to the mast Marisa had been laying with, which was no longer supporting her back from the ship's change in horizontal position. "Woah!" The sudden fall forced Marisa's eyes open before she bent her legs in so as to grasp her broom and floated higher in order not to hit her head on the wooden floor. "The hell's going on here?!" Her body upside down, hanging from her broom, Marisa had to hold her hat in place with her left arm all the while Reimu's alert gaze surveyed the surroundings for her.

As far as Reimu could tell, sounds of multiple collisions affronted her ears, all of them accompanied by the ship's shifting movements. Manly screams similarly rung through the area, belonging to those who had fallen from the ship's edge, taken by the unstable, tall waves that could reach the leaning ship as it continuously tilted to the right. "Something's hitting the ship!" Reimu assertively exclaimed as she flew for the left edge in order to confront the source.

"That just..." In one swift, though arduous motion, Marisa's upper body had risen, supported by her legs, which latched tightly onto the rotating broom as it managed to set her into a normal sitting position. "Had to be when I was tryin' to take a nap, huh?!" Now that she could properly oversee the ship, Marisa scowled at the decreasing numbers of the men that were truly on it, as some screamed for help in the midst of the shaky water of the sea. She turned to Reimu, whose back was visible. She was unmoving before a sight that Marisa was curious about, though she did not see a reason to prioritize that over the people on the other side.

When she looked back to the men, she heard Reimu say, "These weird sea monsters are attacking the ship for some reason! We've got to stop this!" Her voice resounded with burning determination, but it was only enough to warrant a glance out of Marisa, who grimaced as she thought of the situation.

"Everybody's gettin' thrown off the ship, too," Marisa responded as she saw some men sliding off the floor after their grips on the edge's slipping from the force of the swaying ship. "We can't just focus on the monsters."

Reimu directed her gaze towards the left, scowling in frustration. "This is bad..." From afar, down in the raging water, pairs of desperate eyes were watching over Reimu, who trembled under the stress that began to truthfully anger her. "We're splitting up, then, got it?! I'll take care of the monsters while you handle the people!"

"You know I've got only one arm, right? How am I gonna save all these people with just that?!" Marisa incredulously questioned, equally as agitated as Reimu.

"You can't be the only one who can move; ask for help or something!" Reimu shouted, "Either way, nothing can be solved if these monsters keep attacking, so stabilizing the ship is a top priority! I'm putting a barrier over at the right side so they can't hit the ship!" With that, Reimu flew for the right side at top speed, leaving Marisa to inwardly panic alone as she looked over the ship: most men were holding on to the ship as if their lives depended on it, clearly not in the best position to help Marisa; on the other hand, one man seemed to be scouting the left edge while holding on to the mast with one of his arms, as if planning out a strategy.

The man had a hand over the top of his eyes to avoid the sunlight, though it also served to block the disturbance of swaying hair to his line of sight. His expression was calm, though the grimace he was wearing indicated some levels of displeasure towards the situation. Marisa lowered herself near the man and called out, "Hey, mister! Think you can help me get these people back on the boat?"

The man huffed. "Just the two of us? Even if you have that broom of yours, that'd be one difficult job," he plainly answered as he stared Marisa up and down, his demeanor remarkably composed. Then, he pointed to Marisa's broom. "It lets you fly, right? If I let go of this mast for one second, it'll be one less person off the ship; basically, I'm useless right now. You, on the other hand, can fly all the way to the panicking men over there, which is exactly what we need."

"But even if I get there, I could only get one person at a time out, tops," Marisa countered, "In the state this ship's in now, it'll be no use."

"Just listen to me," the man asserted, "There's no point worrying about how many people we can save alone. Even if you had both arms, you wouldn't pull it off. What you need to do is getting them to stop panicking and work together."

"Work together...?" Marisa turned to the left, seeing some men already on the horizon of the sea, screaming for help that did not come. However, they seemed to be able to keep afloat, just as most of the men near the ship. It took Marisa almost no time to connect the dots as her expression brightened with realization, a small smile surging on her previously tense features. "You're right; they're all perfectly fine, so it's not like I'm alone...!" she exclaimed in moderate awe before facing the man once more with a convicted expression, though her smile was strangely assuming a more carefree edge. "You might not be any handy for the actual people-savin', but I owe ya one for opening my eyes. Just you ignore that lame side of me you saw and watch, 'cause arm broken or not, I'm not losing to Reimu!"

"Whatever it is you're doing, I'm counting on you," the man uttered, "so don't you go disappointing me!" Marisa had provided the man with no response in her hurry towards the people she was entrusted with saving, though he was able to see that as a form of reliability. Finally, he had smiled, admiring if not simply the raw energy exuding from the energetic young woman who had garnered everyone's attention by her mere presence. He glanced behind him: a red ribbon was barely visible from the other side, and it slid from side to side in a quick, almost neurotic fashion, representing Reimu's present efforts.

"Mr. Shishito!" A boy's voice had referred to his name, causing the cool-headed man, Shishito, to turn to his the entrance to the ship's cabins, from where Eorn was dashing. Eorn would scarcely hold on to whatever was closest to him in order not to completely slip through the unbalanced ship, but beyond that, Shishito noted, he was still remarkably agile and unlikely to be taken by the waves of the sea. "The crew is too busy making sure there are no leaks from the attack, so they can't offer help! We don't have much choice beyond taking care of the issue ourselves while they prevent it from sinking out of a leak, but what should we even do? I'm more than lost right now, I can barely stay calm!"

"Go check on the other side for now," Shishito ordered, "The faster the attack is stopped, the more people can afford to be saved, and behind me are around two people trying to do just that. You wanted to become a Beast Hunter, right? Then if you know what's attacking us right now, give the two some advice and hope we can get by without the ship sustaining any damage."

"Y-yessir!" Eorn responded almost reflexively, to which Shishito could not help but sigh at as he then watched him rush for the edge opposite of the men he could hear Marisa shouting towards. Feeling his arm sore, Shishito scowled, noting the little time left to solve the current situation. _Whether the girl with the broom saves the men or not, what really matters is her friend's plan. If it doesn't work, getting them inside the ship is as good as useless..._

The sound of a gunshot caused Shishito to snap his attention upwards, to the top of the central mast of the ship, which he had been holding onto. Then, a wailing sound reverberated from Shishito's left, neither on Marisa nor Reimu's side. Regardless, Shishito's focus was on the figure he was only able to faintly see from his position: dark red hair cascaded from the barely visible head of a woman aiming what seemed to be a sniper rifle down towards the sea. _I guess that's no toy after all..._

Eorn, who was only casually grasping the ship's fencing, exclaimed, "Don't shoot them, Ms. Siper!" He was looking at the red-haired woman, though he similarly seemed to be glancing at Reimu, beyond the ship, as she moved frantically. "Hippowhales are very sensitive to sound! You'll only upset them further!"

The woman, Siper, moved her gun away from her face in order to lock her gaze onto Eorn. "For your information," she assertively exclaimed, "I didn't shoot at any of them! But if you do want me to stop shooting at the sea to scare them off from the people on the other side, be my guest and drown with them!" Her words were barely audible, as even while screaming out, Siper's voice held a composed hint to it that implied great self-confidence. Rather than as a way to justify her own actions, she had spoken so as to make Eorn note her perspective, something he was able to figure when she was back to watching over the Hippowhales' movement through the lens of her rifle, completely filling any room for argument.

Due to that, Eorn shifted his attention to Reimu's actions, all of which he had no logical explanation for. "Hey, you!" Reimu called out after having processed Eorn was nearby, though she had not stopped in her flight. "If you've got nothing else to do with yourself, go check on the ship crew and see if any damage was done to the ship before I stepped in! We can't afford the ship sinking over something this insignificant!"

"Mr. Shishito already got me to do that! There's been no significant damage to the ship, so you can rest assured!" Eorn answered while politely smiling, as if in an effort to lift Reimu's spirits. From what he could see of Reimu, she was scowling in anger, her mood entirely soured over the present situation. Meanwhile, to Eorn's confusion, Reimu was carrying on one of her hands around five papers of a golden color, gluing them onto the ship at fast speeds one by one so as to cover its surface entirely.

"Is that so..." Reimu muttered while glancing at the attacking aquatic creatures. She had never seen a similar animal before in her life, especially in such amounts. Their size was unbelievably large to the point only a few of them could have their hits to the ship connect, while the others squirmed from the back in an attempt to do the same, unable to squeeze in between the five main Hippowhales. Their dulled silver skin would reflect sunlight, and their heads, fat and wide as their bodies were, were thick and sturdy, hard enough to project significant amounts of strength onto an especially large and heavy ship. "They've only been bumping into this side of the ship, sure, but that itself is already strange..." Reimu saw the Hippowhales flail about within the sea, almost as if extremely agitated. _If anything, these creatures seem out of control; they're just acting at random. This kind of thing isn't normal, even considering it's a boat._

"By the way, if it's not too much trouble to ask...!" Reimu shifted her gaze to Eorn, curious as to what other business he had with Reimu if it did not pertain to his next course of action. "What exactly are you doing right now?!"

"Isn't it obvious?!" She gestured towards the ship walls, which seemed to flash in a red light, faint inscriptions showing along with it. While at first, Eorn assumed they were on the walls, upon closer inspection, they were only materializing over the walls, as if draped on them. "I'm putting up a barrier so that the ship doesn't take damage! Now I'm about to stop these sea monster things, so don't get in my way!"

"But how do you even plan on doing that?!" Eorn loudly questioned, his tone insistent, leading Reimu to shoot him a glare due to his apparent defiance.

"With these!" Reimu waved a handful of golden paper charms around in order to draw attention to them, though the action had been mostly reflexive as she was slightly irritated by Eorn's presence. "It'll only be able to buy us time, but that's more than enough time to investigate what's getting these creatures so riled up!" Then, she sharply faced the Hippowhales, who seemed to writhe in place at every time they collided with the barrier. With a swift and strong throw, Reimu directed the golden paper charms at the sea, purposefully not hitting the Hippowhales much to Eorn's confusion. The papers had hardened themselves, flying as though knives for the water, only to crumple upon landing, effortlessly floating on.

Reimu was already heading back to the ship, her eyes locked onto the sea and Hippowhales, which had gone completely silent in a matter of seconds. Unable to even screech or shriek, they were simply being dragged about by the waves after being stunned by the shock of great spiritual power that had easily coursed through the water, functioning almost like electricity. The paper charms were originally meant to stun even youkai, so Reimu found nothing surprising with the development, considering her opponents were mere animals. She placed her feet on the ship, which violently leaned to her right while restoring its previous balance. Had she been too late, Reimu ominously noted, the ship was likely going to tip over and sink. As she grimaced, passing Eorn by, she looked towards Marisa so as to check on her progress.

At the same time, Siper had slid down the mast almost effortlessly, with her gun case in hand. "It seems you had it all under control after all," she remarked, "I admire your skill, but I have to admit not shooting a live target was disappointing." With that, Siper headed for the ship's interior without giving Reimu the time to answer or even process that fact that she had been spoken to, seeing as she had not sought for an answer. Reimu, too, had decided to willfully ignore her for a closer inspection of Marisa, paying no mind to the fact that Eorn was following behind her while glancing at Siper's back.

"That's the spirit! The ship's right there; you can't give up now!" Marisa heartily exclaimed from afar, all the while her broom flew at almost blinding speeds for the ship. Sitting next to her was a skinny man who frowned in shame, his clothes entirely wet from his time struggling against the sea's waves. Marisa was shouting at the men near the ship, however, as she could see them forming a human ladder to get back. "As long as you got this many people, there's nothing you can't do!" When she had finally set her eyes on what lay atop the ship, Marisa processed Reimu's presence. "Oh, Reimu! You done subduing the sea monsters?! Just in time!"

Above the ship already, Marisa lowered herself and swiftly landed before staring at the man on the broom intently, waiting for him to do the same. "You also look like everything's under control over there," Reimu commented in slight surprise. "Did you manage this all by yourself?"

"Well, I just had to motivate a buncha guys, nothing special," Marisa nonchalantly explained. "The biggest hurdle was saving the few people who'd strayed too far from the ship, but this was really the only guy who couldn't swim well."

Reimu hummed in acknowledgement as she thought of her next course of action. "Then I suppose I might as well keep leaving this to you. I've actually still got something to do, so you and the people around you better keep helping out on that end," Reimu asserted before turning to Eorn, who tensed under her gaze. Meanwhile, having heard Reimu was not going to help her, Marisa seemed to be speaking to the man she had rescued, pointing towards the human ladder as a way to garner his attention and convince him to aid the men. "Also, if those animals start attacking again, come tell me about it no matter what!"

"W-wait, where are you going?" Eorn asked, only to feel a presence pass by him, preventing Reimu from speaking as she noted the unknown man with curiosity, confusion and wariness.

"She's probably heading for the storage, just like that sniper woman." The man, Shishito approached Reimu, though only with the intent to walk in the same direction as her. "Siper, was it? Either way, she and this woman have the right idea if they're thinking something in there's making the Hippowhales go berserk."

"So you guessed it, too?" Reimu uttered as she stared at him, scrutinizing what kind of person he was from his expression and stance. "I don't know anything about the animals here, but it's definitely weird that all of them were gathered on one side of the ship only. Even when that woman was shooting, it was only because one of them decided to go another way; one out of more than ten." However, the more she pondered on the incident, the more anger started to burn within her, making her raise her fist with sheer conviction. "There's got to be something in that side of the ship that's attracting their attention, and if it's been orchestrated by someone, I'm getting to the bottom of it and give them what they deserve!"

"And there you have it," Shishito loosely interjected. "So, Eorn, do you happen to know what other things Hippowhales are sensitive to beyond sound? Just for reference."

"You won't need to ask the kid about that anymore," a female voice uttered from afar without warning, leading everyone, including Marisa and the rescued man, to turn to its source. A trembling man wearing a frustrated, indignant scowl was in front of Siper, who ascended the stairs to the outdoor deck while grabbing hold of both of the man's arms behind his back and pushing him forward. "Because I've got the culprit. He was playing a suspicious flute so openly I wondered if he actually wanted to be caught."

Just as Siper had specified, a small, silver flute rested on a compartment of the man's belt, which was currently the focus of everyone's gazes. "But wait, we didn't hear any sound from here. Why's that?" Marisa asked, her expression bitter with suspicion.

"It's because the sound it makes can't be heard by us, of course," Siper calmly responded, "Otherwise, how would he have been able to put this plan in motion to begin with? If the flute were audible to humans, we would have gotten to him much sooner."

"I knew it! There just had to be someone behind this!" Reimu exclaimed before brandishing her Purification Rod. "I just wish I'd gotten to him sooner!" While she wanted to rush for the man Siper was holding, a laughing voice brought her immediate priority to a halt, forcing her to turn around in caution, as an accomplice was still far from out of the question for Reimu to assume.

The origin of the laughter was Eorn, whose bewildered amusement seemed immeasurable by the loud and erratic manner he projected his laughter. Siper tilted her head to the side to get a better look at Eorn, grimacing his way, while Marisa's eyebrows furrowed in pure confusion. Reimu and Shishito, on the other hand, had watchful eyes locked onto Eorn trying to discern whether he was an ally or foe, though they leaned to figuring he was the latter.

When Eorn had finally managed to calm himself down, his body straightened confidently as he smirked wide at the guarded people surrounding him. "Oh, you four are more than promising," he remarked, "You even managed to surprise me." Then, he faced Siper specifically, only to point at the man she was apprehending. "He's not the culprit, by the way. That was me all along; I just had him play my flute." Somehow, no one was surprised by the revelation. The four singled out by Eorn were conversely recalling the time Eorn had come up to talk to them, finding it easy to figure that he had been rather suspicious in his actions and much more skilled than he had been making himself out to be. As such, Siper had grabbed the flute from the man before letting him go and watching as he ran from her in fear. Eorn snickered at the sight. "Of course, you never had the evidence to suspect me, but it was already amazing enough that you could find me suspicious. Still, I've got to say I wasn't expecting you all to not only find out about the man in the flute so quickly, but also to stabilize the ship and manage to save the people in the sea all at the same time. I was only planning on making sure you could deduce there was a culprit behind this and get him directly."

"So you put an entire ship in disarray just to test us? You're sure flashy for a kid," Marisa commented as a way to mask her shock in regards to Eorn's motivations.

"More like unforgivable," Reimu added. "You better be ready for a punishment, because you know you deserve it."

"Deserve it? None of this was illegal," Eorn argued without hesitation, completely unfazed by the intimidating gazes of the four. "I was hired by the Hunter Association to test you all. Needless to say you four are the only ones up to standards to advance from the preliminaries."

"Figures," Shishito promptly muttered in a casual fashion. "The Hunter Exam's always been chock full of traps like these."

"Wait..." Reimu and Marisa, confused, attempted to conciliate Eorn's revelation to their current knowledge, skeptic over whether he was telling them the truth. However, as they looked back to the first time they had successfully gotten people to speak about the Hunter Exam, the one who guided them had lightly mentioned something that more than pointed to the situation at hand. "So this whole thing was one of those 'methods to trim the applicants' I heard about?" Reimu questioned.

"Yup! And you four passed with flying colors! Ms. Siper, for one, caught the culprit by herself and was able to adapt to Ms. Reimu's own strategy while holding herself back, which only shows her skill and experience." Siper only smirked, finding there was no need to speak up for something she already considered to be completely correct. Eorn then pointed at Shishito. "Meanwhile, Mr. Shishito made use of his intelligence and calm demeanor to quickly but carefully solve the problem, even if he was unable to act by himself. However, strategizing and devising a good plan are both great qualities, and it was clear you only didn't step in physically because you didn't need to; you look pretty ordinary, so you were one of the biggest surprises in the whole test." Eorn faced Marisa, who stepped back in slight apprehension. "Then there's Ms. Marisa, who at first was a little shifty, but ended up pulling through and getting most of the crew to work together in order to smoothen the incident. Injured or not, you're probably a force to be reckoned."

"Heh, you're exaggerating," Marisa dismissively retorted, though her voice unsubtly conveyed pride and excitement, combined with bashful awkwardness. While she looked to the side, pretending to check on the applicants that were rising onto the ship, she noted that the men were still too distracted saving their peers to focus on the remarkably suspicious situation occurring nearby.

Conversely, Eorn had been seemingly glancing towards the men on the edge of the ship while confidently facing the four he was speaking to, indicating he meant for the conversation not to reach the others' ears. "And last but not least, Ms. Reimu," he uttered before pointing in her direction. "How she managed to get everything under control, I have no clue. Her abilities look like nothing short of magic. Even if you put that aside, she was quick to act and get ahold of the situation, much like Mr. Shishito. I knew she'd have something up her sleeve the moment I met her, but she still exceeded expectations. I'm sure that even if she were alone, she would have somehow gotten her part done and found the culprit without a hassle."

Reimu crossed her arms while regarding Eorn bitterly, the same way one would regard a criminal. While she already knew he had a good reason for his actions, Reimu could not help but stare at him as though to make sure she would notice any suspicious movement from him that would serve to indicate he was still planning something sinister. "This much is nothing compared to most of what I usually go through," she countered. "More importantly, you're not up to something, are you? You might have passed us on this test, but I can't guarantee there won't be another."

Eorn smiled in an unexpectedly gentle manner, which led Reimu to raise her eyebrows in confusion. "Don't worry," Eorn assured before lightly shrugging. "I don't know about the other places, but as far as this ship and I are concerned, you're well on your way to become Hunters." He locked eyes with Reimu, who saw a straightforward conviction in his words and stance that she could not doubt further. As her expression softened, processing that there was no danger, Eorn's smile widened. "It might sound flimsy and all, but there's no doubt in my mind: you four are going far with the exams. Farther than I probably could, that's for sure. So don't let your guard down and come back from Zaban with a license, will you?" With a friendly wave, Eorn walked away from the four, heading for the ship's interior in a calm stride, as if nothing could ever burden him.

Marisa would have wondered about that, if not for the glimpse she had gotten of Shishito and Siper's expressions. They smiled serenely, but proudly; in that strange peace was a kind determination refreshed by Eorn's words and self-reflection on what they had accomplished. It belied dedication, and seemed similar to how someone would smile in reaction to finding that their efforts had paid off; a feeling Marisa was familiar with.

Conversely, it only took a single glance at her own nonchalant stance along with Reimu's absent-minded demeanor, likely pondering on her goal of reaching the mastermind to see that their investment on the Hunter Exam, even now a foreign concept to them, was as different as night and day. Thinking of that, Marisa grimaced. For two people who hardly understood the world they were in, let alone the weight behind an exam, it was only natural, and that would not stop them from regarding the event as nothing more than a means to an end, or a part of a vacation.

Though, whether that neutrality was for the best, Marisa was not quite sure. She eventually shrugged the thought off of her mind and smiled, seeing no meaning to even giving consideration to the matter. After all, regardless of their views on the Hunter Exam, they were intent on reaching it just as much as anyone else. For foreigners such as Reimu and Marisa, that was enough. In fact, it was the most one could expect out of them. As such, despite their lack of emotional investment, Marisa ultimately reasoned that they were already making the most _they_ possibly could out of the journey, just as they stated they would that night.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

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Kind of a thoughtful ending, though how you take it is all up to you. This is an especially short chapter, but I felt like it was necessary. If you think about it, wouldn't it be very abrupt and disappointing if I didn't show how Reimu and Marisa got to the Exam? If anything, the entire story so far has been about this because I felt like starting out the story with them already in the exam, like I planned originally, was far too lacking, even if I put some flashbacks to how it happened. This is because the flashbacks would be insufficient, and there is no element of surprise to Reimu being in the exam due to the story's premise. There is, however, an element of surprise in Reimu finding out about the exam by being in Heavens Arena where Hisoka, who happened to be around, told her to go do it if she wanted leads, all for this incident you and everybody are trying to piece together. It feels like a more worthwhile investment to start this way.

Surprisingly enough, this is still the fast-paced version of this story; this is me trying to make the story go faster! If I wanted things to go slower, I'd linger more on gathering information, with a conversation between that OC who knew about the Exam a lot and Reimu before a scene of them before the ship remarking on the sea and the sheer distances they'd be travelling, only to get to the scene where Eorn talks to them and shit goes down in the sea. Then I'd cut to a scene of Eorn evaluating them and another with the men, like, I'd be full of scenes for all chapters if I were taking it slow. This is me going fast! Not only because I want to get to the meat of the crossover, but also because there isn't much meaning to making this part slower. Besides, a lot of scenes are more troublesome to write if they aren't in fast mode ^^'

Anyway, ugh, so many OCs. I wanted the scene about getting to know the Hunter Exam to have a sort of jolly feeling, you know? Like this animated conversation between a buncha people who were having a drink in which Reimu and Marisa just happen to be in. Naturally, the set-up is that Reimu paid for their drinks, but either way, because of the scene's nature, I wanted to make it be more interesting from its tone, even if it was full of OCs because of it. My favorite OC has to be the old man; what a chill dude. However, another close favorite was the young man next to the chick, Elly? Him questioning Marisa's intent of taking the Exam was awesome lol Even then, the most important OC was Deann in that case, because he knew a lot. Originally, he was going to know about it because somebody he knew died on last year's exam, but who'd want to get reminded of the exam if that happened to them? Conversely, Sol is an angrier type of guy, so he went over there to scold Reimu, if anything. I imagine normal people actually don't want to have much to do with the exam, but the more daring people really like the idea of being Hunters and take it.

As usual, I did a whole lot of research on the Hunter Exam before I wrote this. The part about applying for the exam overdue being allowed is not technically canon, but I'm betting you this would be a thing. If the preliminaries eliminate all the candidates that aren't good enough to begin with, it wouldn't make a difference if they applied late. The manga has a lot of specific parts it clarifies in regards to the exam, but one thing that got to me was the application form. I did not remember that was a thing, to be honest. Did that even show up in the 2011 anime? Thankfully, the manga showed it right to my face, and clarified that after you send your form, the Hunter Association sends you a flier telling you the approximate location and date of the exam. Judging by the number of people who get to the exam, I honestly assume you're allowed to get to the exam site early, early being as soon as you get the flier. Gon sends his form and states he's leaving on the first week of January, the second week being the start of the Hunter Exam. This implies that by the first week of January, probably everyone should already have handed their forms and gotten the flier. Gon arrived by the time limit, so he apparently took a whole week to get to the exam site. Gon does tend to get to places dangerously near the time limit in the series lol

I actually wanted Reimu and Marisa to get to Zaban city on an airplane and have the preliminary take place there, but... I don't know if there are airplanes (though I think there were helicopters, at least), especially whether Zaban City even has an airport. Sure, we've seen airships, but I can't be sure if every place has an airship. Not only that, but these places aren't connected by land, so I can't change it to a train or bus or something. Basically, I didn't wanna risk it, and in a Touhou perspective the sea happens to be a rarer sight so it was also thematically-appropriate. Besides, the preliminaries probably take place all in Dolle Harbor (they probably don't, to be honest, but still), and I'm not sure if there would be airplanes going there, so Reimu would be taking a normal plane and safely land in Zaban, if anything. I say this because there's no way the Hunter Association would put innocent lives in danger for the preliminaries, for legal reasons (so there would have to be Hunter-specific means of transportation)... Hopefully. You know how Hunters work.

However, even if it's on a boat, I didn't want a repeat of the original. If anything, the original didn't even have a test. A storm just coincidentally happened, making it quickly ascertain which people were Hunter material. Still, since this time, the person who was hired was not the captain or anything, I wanted there to be a test, and for that test to be different. This is where I got Eorn from: he was different in every aspect from the captain in the original, and his test was simple, but effective in checking which people are up to par from simple quickness to act and deductive prowess. Not everyone fell out of the ship, but the people who didn't were all holding onto it, while Eorn had the people who could actually do things in that situation to be the people that were Hunter material physically-speaking. Eorn's a kid, but he's got a lot of training and talent; even then, he's not a Hunter. He knows all about animals, and his family's all in the animal-taming business, some of his relatives in Biology; others are even Hunters. I wanted him to stick out in some way, so I made that be due to his demeanor: even though he's like 15, he's all confident and chatty in the middle of these gruff men. I thought that was a good contrast.

Still, that was a very fast climax, with various sides. I think that the appearance of Shishito and Siper give you an idea of how early or late Reimu and Marisa are, though even Hisoka's appearance should have given some clues. I imagine it was surprising that the other canon characters you find right after a big fish like Hisoka are side characters who briefly show up in the manga as Fourth Phase filler. Even then, I studied them hard, taking reference from the 1999 anime. I'd initially imagined Siper as a calm and stoic lady, but the 1999 anime had a more cocky rendition of the character, so I went with that, instead. Meanwhile, Shishito didn't have any lines in the 1999 anime that I know of, so I had to build his personality myself. As such, I pictured someone whose winning qualities were more intellectual than physical. In that same sense, Siper was portrayed in the anime as someone whose winning quality was her shooting precision, but she had to be better than that to pass the preliminaries and all the other exam phases; she at least had to be strong enough to apprehend a normal dude. I thought her contribution to the climax was too small, so I made her get the culprit to make up for that.

By the way, this is unrelated to what I'm saying, but that filler part of the 1999 anime where they're stranded in a place full of abandoned and sunken ships is the shit; very gripping and all-encompassing. I wish actual Hunter x Hunter were able to pull that off more successfully. Holy shit, do I want a 1999 version of the Chimera Ant arc lol I was planning on ending the chapter later, with another scene, but with how fast things were going here, I couldn't just add something else on top of it or it'd be too cluttered story-wise. With that in mind, you'll be seeing that scene and others on the next chapter! Look forward to it?

 **Deleted Dialogue:**

Sol: "You can't underestimate the Hunter Exam! It kills people every day!"

Me: "..."

*Laughter ensues*


	8. Chapter 7

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - Now that I'm writing this story, I'm pretty much bound to check the source material, so I also watched a lot of HunterxHunter (and read it a lot, too)! After watching it a few times, you can tell a few more nuances than before, and that's always interesting. More interesting than that though is definitely the differences from the manga, or the 1999 anime. The 1999 anime has filler, but I actually reccommend it if the art style and general oldness isn't unappealing. I see it as another take on the manga, like the 2011 version. Stuff about the 1999 anime nobody's asked for aside, I like the way you see things from an angle I don't, because you definitely make me think. Though, regardless of which is the wisest course of action, how close to their chests _would_ Reimu and Marisa keep Gensokyo? In theory, the only place they're obligated to keep Gensokyo a secret from is the Outside World and even then Sumireko posted stuff about it and no one really cared. But then again, it could be seen as a safer move for the balance of Gensokyo to be more secretive about it. Now, which would it be if seen by the perspectives of Reimu and Marisa? Another thing is that Reimu and Marisa aren't confined to the world of HunterxHunter: they can come and go through Okina's backdoors at will (partially) and return to Gensokyo, so there isn't much pressure about being able to go back or not, in the sense that they don't have to fear being trapped in the world of HunterxHunter. So, conversely, I didn't consider either of them being homesick because home's right on their back, though the fact this is just a vacation to Marisa and an incident to solve for Reimu also makes it so they deal with this better. Oh, and as of now in the story, only a select few characters even know about the whole other world where Nen's from, so I can't deny or agree to there being interest in this world by some characters, though I also think it depends. Gensokyo's exposed to so many otherworlds that another one doesn't actually seem as grand as that if not for the fact that it's another dimension. Regardless, I'll keep all of this in mind, especially the second paragraph! Thank you very much for reviewing, once again!**

I'd honestly thought I'd uploaded something on February only to find I'd failed to update this story for more than a month now ;_; I usually upload a chapter per month and if I'm really lucky and productive, maybe two, but there are also times when I end up taking a bit more than that. Me being busy with real life, for example, could be a factor in this. Regardless, I'd say you should only start worrying about the story's status if I haven't uploaded a chapter in four months or something, just for reference. Anyway, since the last chapter, this story got 5 favorites and 7 followers! Thank you very much, again! Speaking of gratitude, though, I'd like to give a modest (because I'm not sure if they'd want that; if this is the case, please tell me and I'll comply) shout-out to the user _Faldorion_ for their helpful advice and idea I actually managed to implement, which has honestly really smoothened the particular sub-plot I included it in! Thank you very much! The sheer joy earned from being able to apply something told by reviews is practically immeasurable!

Anyway, enjoy!

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 **Chapter 7: The Last Stepping Stone for the First Destination  
**

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The small room seemed almost bleak from its dull lighting, only compensated by a window opposite of Miko's current seat. The mansion of the Lunarians appeared unassuming, even subtle in its design, and the fact that it was so deep within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost intensified that presence in Miko's eyes; they lived in hiding. From what, Miko did not truthfully care, though she had some inkling of an idea when she had taken to reading the desires of Reisen. However, in face of the rumored Lunarian, Miko did not risk such an action.

Eirin's expression was calm, but in no way gentle. She sat on the other end of the table on her knees, and grasped a cup of tea with both of her hands. Her stance was elegant, even more so than Miko's, but her gaze was perhaps far too cold to indicate that she was meaning to be polite. Even so, Miko had no reasons to complain: she had been given a proper welcome by Reisen, who guided her to the room she was presently lightly surveying, and was served tea while being offered a personal welcome by the Lunarian herself; the people of Eientei were certainly trying to make a good impression. Miko knew there was another resident in Eientei, but she had yet to spot her, and she assumed she never would. Once again, another secret. Eientei was a place of hiding, but for more things than even Miko could possibly imagine.

The thought amused Miko, who smiled Eirin's way in both confidence and a hint of a strangely nonchalant contentedness that Eirin herself was not so readily expecting out of Miko. "It should go without saying that I've been informed of your terms already," Eirin said, "but for the sake of confirmation, I'll reiterate them to you: you, Miko Toyosatomimi, have proposed a mutual trade of information out of Eientei for the sake of a smooth resolution of the current incident." Miko nodded along Eirin's words, as if to make sure Eirin would have no reason to make an unnecessary pause in her explanation. "Should we agree to it, you are to dispense all of the information you have and will continue to gather on Nen and its effects, along with anything pertinent to the course of the incident itself, which is presumably centered on the Human Village; on the other hand, we of Eientei are to dispense whatever information we find on the relation this incident has with the interference Nen appears to be causing to the moon rabbits. Through this, one faction can focus on a single goal, which would in turn increase the efficiency of our efforts. Is this the full extent of your offer?"

"Naturally so," Miko responded. "To omit or add parts to a pre-established agreement would be nothing but a preemptive breach of your trust. Any and all details in need of clarification will be approached in this meeting, just as should be expected."

Eirin locked eyes with Miko for a moment, though she was expecting to see the Lunarian in such a way suspicious of her and her motivations. Conversely, Miko herself would have held great suspicion were the request made from their side, as well. Miko remained with a polite smile, taking Eirin's intense gaze in stride. However, against her expectations, Eirin broke into a light, natural smile, as though genuinely content. "Very well, then. Let's work together just this once."

"Hm?" Miko blinked awkwardly for a brief moment, surprised by the Lunarian's sudden compliance with her wishes. However, upon realizing the unaccounted for show of weakness, Miko cleared her throat and resumed smiling just as brightly as Eirin seemed to be, even if her thoughts were far from the mood the expression implied. "W-well, your quick response is certainly flattering. With such expectations placed on me, I'll truly have to make sure I don't disappoint."

"Nonsense," Eirin uttered with a graceful wave of her hand that she further used to pull strands of her hair to the back of her ear. "Your presence alone answers expectations already." Predicting a silence long enough to allow for it, Eirin then took a considerable sip of her tea from the cup on her hands without noting the slight change in Miko's expression after her statement, if only because she had no need to do so.

After all, she already knew Miko's interest would be piqued. "Oh?"

When she did finally eye Miko more carefully, Eirin faintly chuckled as she saw a smirk belonging to someone who felt as though positively challenged; almost as though willing to learn, even despite the fact that she did not see Eirin as her equal. "It's quite simple, really," Eirin effortlessly stated, "From the moment I confirmed your intent to exchange information, I could already infer that your investment in the incident is beyond the level of mere curiosity. If you couldn't simply wait for the shrine maiden to take care of things, your faction must be playing some sort of part in the going-ons of the Human Village, especially since that's going to be the center of your information-gathering efforts. Now, the most I need to hear from you directly is how exactly you are involved in the incident and what other information you gathered from the village."

"I see..." Miko's gaze grew only sharper as she stared intently towards Eirin, whose relaxed presence indicated a kind of confidence that could only accompany those of great competence or skill. It was an easy stance to take for beings who far surpassed human nature, and Miko knew better than to leave herself seeming inferior to the alien figure. "I suppose I should have expected this level of intellect out of one such as yourself," Miko easily remarked, only to grasp her tea cup for the first time. "Though, I could have been gathering information precisely because my faction has no involvement with the incident, rather than the other way around."

Miko drunk from the tea cup expecting Eirin to ponder on the hypothesis, but Eirin had been quick to firmly dismiss it through a question: "And you would have joined hands with Eientei if the matter were as flimsy to you?"

Now that was a difficult inquiry to safely answer. Thankfully, Eirin's rapid deductive prowess gave Miko time to ponder on her response while she sipped on the tea and set it on the table calmly, leaving no traces of the true thought she had placed on Eirin's retort. "I have to admit you wouldn't have been my first choice then," Miko said with an ever so slightly bitter smile, if only to express an appropriate amount of regret she did not feel, "if I were to ask for assistance at all. Regardless, I'm finding myself impressed by your deductive capabilities, so I may find myself considering you more often from here on out." Then, as an expression of playful confidence, Miko winked Eirin's way.

Eirin herself seemed unfazed, lacking in any change in attitude or features, but Miko was already expecting that out of the Lunarian considering her sharp intelligence. However, in exchange, there was no clear method to see through her own thoughts, so Miko smirked contentedly as she heard Eirin calmly remark, "For a hermit, you seem to have a way with words." That comment marked the end of the somewhat lighthearted mood lingering in the room, with Eirin's smile fading into a colder, albeit elegant frown. She looked into Miko's eyes and continued to speak: "Though, putting that aside, I feel like you should start by revealing the state of the Human Village to me, if only because you know of the moon rabbit ordeal already."

Miko understood the change immediately upon having Eirin's gaze on her, and tensed accordingly. "Fair enough," Miko said, her voice now firm and assertive, almost mirroring Eirin's if not for its more ostentatious edge. "Firstly, I think it would be best for you to know exactly why the Human Village is not safe anymore, especially for youkai."

Eirin nodded as she pondered on Miko's offer, giving it almost immediate approval despite her expression still showing signs of lingering thought in her mind. "Yes, Reisen did mention you said something like that to her. Something about Nen-users threatening to attack the youkai?"

"Precisely," Miko responded as she watched Eirin take up her tea cup in preparation to stay silent and listen to Miko's eloquently-spoken but accessible explanation. She placed a hand over her chest before speaking up, implying a light sense of urgency correlated with an unfortunate situation: "They are currently working as a group managed by one leader, the first to use Nen. This group had few members at first, but it began to gain power long since the recent Four Seasons Incident. I presume they took advantage of the disarray in people's hearts over the high-scale calamity and the fact that the way of Tao is not so easily graspable: before I knew it, over a dozen of my followers had left me for this group in search of a more convenient method of attaining power."

"So that was why you'd decided to solve the incident," Eirin said before she even laid the cup back down on the table, voicing precisely her thoughts on the matter with a hint of indifference, "I should have assumed something like that was at play with a religious faction such as yours."

Despite the reaction, Miko simply added to her summary of the cirsumstances, ignoring Eirin: "Seeing one or two quit the dojo is nothing suspicious, but this sudden decrease in followers was admittedly concerning, as you'd imagine. Though, when I heard about Nen and the existence of this group, I was immediately certain of their whereabouts. The recent confrontation I had with them only further proved it."

"You confronted these Nen-users directly?"

"I taunted them, and they came out for me," Miko confidently stated, showing now the smallest hint of a smirk. "It was a very fruitful plan, considering the information I could collect from direct group members. They appear to be firmly anti-youkai, and the leader supposedly seeks the supremacy of the human population in Gensokyo, using Nen as a catalyst."

For a moment, Eirin vacantly blinked, as if processing an illogical hypothesis, only to utter with a frown belying pity, or even disdain, "Oh, my. This cannot possibly be the leader's true intention, can it?"

"I'd say there is more to the plan than the mastermind is revealing to them," Miko responded. "All things considered, these group members seem like nothing more than pawns devised to raise tensions in the village. Even so, Nen is a dangerous power, and the people I did defeat were a challenge just because of its stranger gimmicks that can catch you off-guard." _Had Futo not been nearby, I could have even struggled against them at first._ It was not something Miko wanted to remind herself of, and she refrained from expanding on her statement. "So far, they've been accomplishing the exterminaton of several youkai, and I can only conclude that Eientei will eventually be a target of theirs, as well."

For once, Eirin was quiet for at least a quarter of a second to ponder on Miko's words, and not out of condescencion. In fact, Eirin ended up nodding in agreement with a grimace present only due to the few worst case scenarios she had imagined beforehand. "You're right. It was good of you to evacuate Reisen." Then, however, her expression softened, though her eyebrows were still more furrowed than normal. "I suppose I owe you my gratitude."

"It was nothing," Miko stated, initially proud, only to further recall the circumstances regarding the Human Village. Looking to appear composed, though lightly affected by the urgency of the matter at hand, Miko offered a small grimace, and continued: "Moreover, the group is aware of my agreement with you, so my safety in the Human Village is not guaranteed, either."

"You wouldn't have let it be so easily revealed if it put you at such a disadvantage," Eirin immediately retorted, "You purposefully allowed them to hear about it in order to seem like you have the upper hand, right?" Miko smirked for a moment, under the shade of her tea cup, thinking of the purely psychological tactic; simple unbrittled confidence was always enough to sway weak human minds. Naturally, Eirin would see through it, likely under the assumption that Miko would not request information from others had she an actual usable advantage against the mastermind. "Nen-users or not, they would have difficulty facing Eientei in the Bambo Forest of the Lost, so your decision has no downsides to me. Besides, this is what allowed you a full interrogation. I assume you've found essential information from it?"

"Of course," Miko said, "I know not only where their meetings are held, but the set times and their current plans." _Though, I'm sure they'll change some of these if they have a good head on their shoulders. Regardless, it's a good basis to have in an investigation._ "I intend to see through the leader's identity next, using this information as reference. I'll see to it I ask about the moon rabbits when I meet the man."

"How reliable," Eirin remarked as she subtly smiled, her words only half-serious when it came to Eirin's present opinion of Miko. Though, whether Miko could understand the way Eirin saw her was an exceedingly neutral matter to her, and she sipped on her tea with a slowness befitting someone free of fears. "Anyway, I believe this much is enough for me to have a good understanding of the circumstances of the Human Village."

"Are you sure?" It was not an expression of concern, but politeness, and Miko smiled as such while facing Eirin, feeling almost as though her course of action and Eirin's were eerily similar; composed shows of two-faced pretty words, neither truthfully interested in the other. "I was just about to tell you of the specific murders and the location where the meetings are held."

"I have no need for that when you're already so intent on settling things for yourself on that end," Eirin succintly explained, leaving no room for argument through her exceedingly firm stance. "What Reisen most needs to do right now is to reach those moon rabbits."

Seeing as she could add nothing to Eirin's statements, Miko instead shrugged. "Well, if you say so." She drank from her tea cup afterwards, and smirked upon a thought that suddenly assailed her. "Then, out of curiosity..." Miko locked eyes with Eirin, as if to make sure she would be able to scrutinize her no matter the contents of her response. "What would a Lunarian such as yourself think of this incident? Would you say it's the birth of an anti-youkai faction?"

Although it would seem as though she was being tested, Eirin could also hypothesize Miko simply wanted to gather knowledge on her perspective in particular, a kind of behavior she admittedly considered wise. However, the topic itself was disinteresting to Eirin, who frowned as she looked to the side, pensive to a fault. "Perhaps," Eirin said, "Though, youkai would not be the only ones disadvantaged by this movement, assuming its purpose is to assure the independence of Humanity from the influence of youkai. The moment they deny youkai, they will start to deny any other mystical faction meaning to rule Gensokyo, after all; not even gods are an exception. Without fear or respect for these beings, Humanity will simply reject and erase their existence in relation to their supposed superiority, mirroring the Outside World. In essence, the supremacy of the humans is in no one's best interests here, _yours_ included." Miko grimaced, taking full note of the accusatory tone the very last sentence assumed, but she did not avert her gaze from Eirin, as if unable to. "As for myself, I can accept any result as long as this mansion still stands with all of its residents in it, but I'm sure nothing will really change in Gensokyo for the sake of one mastermind."

Miko took a moment simply to ponder on Eirin's words in an absolutely calm, rational state of mind, and she nodded to herself, swallowing her comprehension of Eirin's content as though bitter medicine. "As to be expected, we differ in mindset," Miko said in a voice lacking precise emotion, "for we are from distinct planes of existence. I imagine there would be much to uncover simply discussing with your kind." _Though, I doubt they would ever be willing to discuss at all. As far as the Moon is concerned, we may as well perish._

"Maybe so," Eirin vacantly responded, as though uninvested in what she considered to be Miko's empty words. Rather, she focused on her own priorities yet again, and continued to speak: "By the way, have you gathered any information on Nen itself?"

Even to Miko, the change in topics was seemingly benefitial, and she recovered her amicable smile. "I fought a few Nen-users and know of much of its theory from my interrogation, but I don't see how it would be more than a means to an end. Since you weren't willing to listen to the information I had on the group itself, I similarly figured you wouldn't be interested in this," Miko responded without hesitation, as though stating nothing more than objective facts. "Was I wrong, then?"

"You were partially wrong," Eirin answered just as quickly and assertively, but her stance was relatively relaxed as she gazed at Miko finishing her tea. "It is true that Nen is only a means to an end, but there is some interest in knowing of its origins. You do know this power is not from Earth, do you?"

Miko set the empty cup on her table, and locked eyes with Eirin. "I had the feeling it was foreign but..." Now, her smile had ceased once more, replaced by a sharp, observant gaze and thin frown, as if not to miss a single change in Eirin's state of mind. "Could you be implying that this is a power from the Moon, therefore your interest in its origins and its involvement with the moon rabbits?" While characteristically serious, it was a question phrased as though Miko held no animosity towards Eirin, even despite its implications.

Naturally, Eirin knew better than to be misled by mere phrasing, and the hypothesis belied in Miko's question forced a careless smile out of Eirin, who suppressed an urge to chuckle. "Oh, no," she answered, "it couldn't possibly compare to the Moon's powers. But, well, it really would appear you know less than I do now." Miko's eyebrows raised only slightly from the bold statement, but she refrained from showing Eirin any more of her bewilderment towards it on the grounds that the reaction could have been Eirin's goal from the start. However, the intent gaze directed Eirin's way was enough to note she had Miko's full attention, and Eirin's smile widened as though content with the current situation. "Why don't I tell you something interesting about the shrine maiden's whereabouts? It isn't technically my obligation to tell you of anything other than what Reisen finds, but I think you could make use of this piece of information more than I could, since my only goal is to stop the mastermind's interference with the moon rabbits."

"You've piqued my curiosity, at least," Miko affirmed in a moment of sheer honesty, and proceeded to order: "Tell me what you know."

"Alright, then." Conversely, Eirin's elegant stance was being accompanied by a strangely easygoing demeanor. She faintly shrugged, only to sip on her tea, leaving Miko to note her self-assurance. "This may surprise you," Eirin said, "but I assure you it's nothing but the truth."

"You have no reason to lie to me," Miko asserted, if only to rush the conversation along. "I'll trust you."

"Such confidence," Eirin lightly commented, almost as if in irony. The faintly pleasant expression remained, almost condescendingly so, even as she began to speak of a seemingly more serious topic: "Either way, it just so happens I have a certain patient who has been providing me all the information I need on Nen. I think you know her just as well as I do: it's the human magician from the forest."

"Marisa, you mean?" _How would she be know of Nen better than me?_

"Yes. She was attacked by a Nen-user, and she has to come to Eientei every so often for a check-up and my medicine. While she's here, I ask her all I can about her adventures with the shrine maiden," Eirin explained, "It would seem they are both in a completely different dimension in order to gather information on Nen and to find the mastermind's accomplices, or even the mastermind itself. The situation is supposedly very vague to her, as well."

Miko's gaze was practically hollow in face of the revelation. "What...?" She blinked, perhaps to check if she was not being shown some sort of a hallucination, but Eirin's knowing smirk only intensified the reality of her words.

"I told you it was going to be surprising."

"It is more than surprising," Miko fiercely retorted, grimacing in face of what seemed to be, beyond her expectations of Eirin, the truth. "If I hadn't sworn to believe you, I would have denied the statement altogether without any evidence to back it up."

"If it's evidence you want, you can always try to contact the goddess offering them passage to and fro the foreign dimension, or Marisa herself. I'm only telling you what Marisa has told me, after all."

In perhaps an instant, Miko's mind was filled with only thoughts pertaining Reimu and Marisa's endeavors, and her meeting with Eirin ended quickly afterwards with promise of another. As far as her own plans, Miko was successful in attaining Eirin's cooperation, though it was seemingly earned in far too easy a fashion for her own peace of mind. Perhaps that had been Eirin's intent, Miko noted: in order to seem as though she had the upper hand, Eirin acted as though she was free of concerns or fears, all so Miko would keep her guard up and refrain from acting upon Eientei recklessly. Furthermore, Eirin's exposure of knowledge beyond Miko's current understanding, too, was a display of power in their agreement; proof that Eirin could be holding a vast array of information Miko desired and would lose if she ever threatened the elusive home of the Lunarians. If so, Eirin was perhaps even more formidable than she had expected, frustrating as the matter was to a scowling Miko who flew through the bamboo forest at moderate speeds.

 _I underestimated her, and came ill-prepared._ Miko sighed, only to bitterly smile. _Though I hardly want to admit it , i_ _t seems I still have much to learn and improve on before I can truly settle matters with the People of the Moon. I must learn from this encounter and strive for improvement, so that this never happens again._ However, before she could consider how to eventually best Eirin, her main concerns lay on her course of action regarding the mastermind, and whether she would take Eirin's advice and consult Marisa herself. So as to efficiently organize her priorities (believing that also to be a way to work on her own improvement), Miko had forsaken that train of thought and pondered on the mysteries regarding the other dimension, and the worth of pursusing them.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

As the coursing wind collided with her flying form, Reimu noted there was not much difference between standing on a ship and being midair; the wind was especially strong then, as well. Naturally, she was familiar with the sensation, so she took the wind in stride, finding it refreshing even, though the weather was not exactly warm. Even so, Dolle Harbour was currently graced with a sky entirely clear of clouds, where the Sun's warmth vaguely shone through. Reimu was currently on the outskirts, aiming for the location specified by the flier she had received: Zaban city. She had no expectations for it, and from the rudimentary path she was following as reference for the city, Reimu was unsure if she should expect a metropolis such as the city housing Heaven's Arena or something more modest, almost akin to the harbour town she was leaving behind.

"Now that I think about it, I didn't run into any weird test while I was at the harbor..." she muttered to herself, as she happened to be floating alone in the sky, receiving occasional stares from the people who noticed her presence. Since she had understood she was not in the Outside World, Reimu had become uncaring of what people would see of her abilities, as it did not affect the barrier directly, and that change was extremely relaxing for a tendentially easygoing Reimu. Seeing as she could freely fly now, the time she spent at the harbour was incredibly short, mostly occupied by shopping for bare necessities. While there was some time to rest, they had arrived in the early morning, after waking up well-rested. Beyond that, so as to avoid any traps from the Hunter Association, now more wary of them, they had only briefly walked through the area to become familiarized with the shops.

At the familiar sensation trailing around her back, Reimu halted her movement, but did not turn around as she knew exactly what to expect out of that development. "Back," Marisa uttered from behind her as she leaped out of the open backdoor, which immediately closed the moment she was fully outside of the Land of the Rear Door. With impeccable timing, Marisa then placed her broom below her, preventing a sudden fall. Still, her eyes were wide from the surprise, and she was admiring herself for her remarkable reflexes all the while her heart beat fast with anxiety over the nearly dangerous situation. "But where the hell is this? Weren't we at the harbor?"

Marisa flew towards Reimu's side, sparing Reimu the effort to turn around as she could instead glance to the side. "I already got the map, so I thought I might as well get a move on since you'd accompany me anyway," Reimu carelessly explained as she took a folded piece of paper from within one of her detached sleeves and promptly pointed at it. "According to this thing, I just need to follow this path on the ground and I'm all set." She smiled, pleased at the convenient turn of events.

"Well, I got the pills, so we're _really_ all set now," Marisa stated before shaking the box she had quickly taken from one of the most easily-accessible pockets of her backpack, which she had specifically prepared for the journey.

Reimu vacantly watched Marisa's needless action while storing the map, only to raise her eyebrows ever so slightly. "Wasn't the box smaller before?" Reimu pointed to the respective box, conversely leading Marisa to cease storing it.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I got different pills now," Marisa responded, "Eirin says they'll help my arm heal faster, and I damn hope that's true."

"What happened to the painkillers?"

"Don't need them anymore," Marisa answered with a careless shrug, only to finally insert the box back to the pocket on her backpack and focusing solely on Reimu's neutral expression. "A broken arm hurting for a real long time's a very bad sign, apparently."

"It definitely wouldn't be a good sign, that's for sure," Reimu retorted as she looked over Marisa up and down, almost as if to gauge her general physical condition for the upcoming journey. "How long do you think you'll stay like that, by the way?"

"I dunno, a few months? Could be less depending on how good the pills are," Marisa said.

As if troubled by the uncertainty in Marisa's carefree words, Reimu grimaced, and asked, "Though, wouldn't Eirin be able to make medicine even more effective than that?" Seeing Marisa nod, Reimu shot her a judging glare.

In quick response to it, Marisa raised her only arm to signal Reimu to stop with the palm of her hand, and spoke with a lightly hesitant, lopsided frown: "That's what I thought, too, but she didn't give me any other choices. It was either that or nothing." _Plus crippling debt, and that's never good._

Reimu pondered on the response for a small moment, but shifted her gaze to Marisa soon enough with a calmer stance, which served to relieve some of the anxiety Marisa had built up from the prospect of Reimu's anger. "The last time she tried giving me medicine, it was really shady, so I'd be careful if I were you," Reimu nonchalantly warned.

From that warning came a flurry of different recollections, leading to an eager Marisa speaking up quicker than Reimu had: "You're talkin' about that one time you went to the Moon, right?" Marisa smiled, albeit in a lightly cynical fashion as she locked eyes with Reimu. "The one you were braggin' all about how you beat everybody without Eirin's medicine."

Unfazed by the slight changes in Marisa's expression, however, Reimu proudly asserted, "Of course. There's no way I'd want to rely on shady Lunarian technology to beat Lunarians to the ground, especially not when I have no idea what kind of side effects it could have had on me."

Marisa shrugged. "Can't say you're wrong there," she said, only for her smile to widen as she further recalled other events. "Still, Eirin herself said there weren't any side effects to worry about and _all_ things considered, there's no way she'd lie to me so I'm not that worried about it."

"Hey!" The faint male voice was heard by both Marisa and Reimu, but they had paid it no mind since they assumed right away it was meant to call for someone else. "You two! Flying in the sky!" It was only then Reimu and Marisa thought to look down out of curiosity, only to see a tiny human figure desperately waving at them in order to garner their attention. "Please! Come over here!" It seemed as though simply shouting required considerable effort, resulting in shorter sentences echoing through the sky. Reimu and Marisa glanced at each other, confusion evident in their expressions.

"What's his deal...?" Marisa quietly questioned as she lowered herself closer to the man, complying with him regardless of her own doubts.

Reimu was following suit, entirely neutral to the situation. "Who knows?" Regardless, they approached the man without landing on the ground, staring at him intently from above.

The middle-aged man grimaced from the attention, particularly due to the fact that they were casually floating in the air as if it were an ordinary occurrence. However, he managed to clear his throat and dismiss such thoughts to face them with a much more stoic expression, almost too eerily similar to Reimu and Marisa's, if only because they cared little for the man's business with them. "You, uh... With the way you're following this path, you must surely be heading for Zaban city. "

"Sure we are. What about it?" Marisa loosely voiced, having put little thought to her words.

Meanwhile, Reimu was starting to consider the circumstances and shot a glare at the man. "Don't tell me this is another one of those Hunter preliminary test things because if it is..." She crossed her arms, expecting the man's reaction to dictate her next course of action.

"What? No," the man stated incredulously. At that, Marisa could not help but slowly nod in acknowledgment. _He does look really weak for an examiner..._ "I'm an applicant for the Hunter exam! Aren't you supposed to be navigators? He told me the ones he knew could fly...!"

Meanwhile, Reimu tilted her head to the side, curious. "Navigators? What are you talking about?" she flatly asked.

To Reimu and Marisa's surprise, the man flinched. _Shit, I was wrong after all!_ After nervously chuckling, the man spat out, "Nothing! Nothing at all, uh...!" Seeing two pairs of increasingly apathetic eyes narrowing in on his apprehensive form, the man reflexively scowled, resorting to instinctive, defensive anger. "How about you get out of my sight and keep on flying to Zaban?! I don't have a thing to tell you!"

"But you sure said a lot of things just now," Marisa retorted. The man took a step back, as if wary of their attitude, seeing as the two girls were unfazed.

"Right? There's no way I would have misheard him, too," Reimu nonchalantly claimed while approaching the man, who seemed to be planning to escape.

Marisa did the same, cornering him by a mound of trees near the beaten path. "Huh, that's weird," she vacantly added, "'cause if if you didn't hear the guy wrong and he did say lotsa stuff, it means he's lyin' to us, Reimu. Wonder why? Did we do anything wrong?"

"Not that I know of," Reimu responded, "If anything..." The moment she paused, she shifted her gaze back to the man, now an especially intense glare. "He was the one who got in our way, right? I'm pretty sure he was the one who called us over here for no reason while we were so busy." Reimu brandished her Purification Rod, assuming a fighting stance.

Marisa smirked as she reached for something behind her skirt. "As a witness to this unfortunate incident, I can confirm your testament's veracity, and guess what?" Then, with an extremely swift swing of her arm forward, her hectagram-shaped weapon of choice sprung into sight as she stood back, almost mimicking Reimu's own position. "This guy's guilty as can be!"

"Hey, hey, let's not get hasty," the man uttered, "I mean, I wouldn't want to hurt you and ruin your chances of getting to the exam site."

 **"Say what?"** Reimu and Marisa countered simultaneously, their darkly angered expressions just as mirrored.

"I-I mean, there's no need to go fighting this early on, you know?! Tell you what, I can tell you whatever you want to know... For a price." The man smiled weakly, his gaze expectant. "How about that?"

Silence was maintained in that beaten path for a long moment, as even the wind had settled down. The more it continued, the more it drained the tension out of Marisa and Reimu, whose expressions were now blank with dull neutrality. However, when she finally decided there was need to speak up, Marisa processed the man's words and grimaced. "Maaaan... Money again?" Marisa sighed. "I get that you're loaded an' all, but if you take this one your rich shtick's gonna end up more repetitive and dull than the running gag about stuff we don't do to injured people, and that one's _stale_ already, Reimu. Think about that."

Just as Marisa had told her to, Reimu pondered on the matter lightly, only to connect the dots. At the dreadful conclusion, Reimu scowled, her stance deathly serious. "You're right...!"

The man's confusion was in such a way intense he could not help but utter, "What?"

"Besides..." Reimu smiled in a carefree manner, almost eerily so in the man's perspective. "Rather than wasting money, I can always just beat him up and get it done with. Just like always!"

"Yeah, now that's the gung-ho Reimu I know! Not that I'm any different, though!" Now with entirely innocent smiles, pure with joy, Reimu and Marisa threateningly faced the man with their own fighting poses, ready to charge at him at any moment.

The man, still lost on the flow of the conversation, scrambled to raise his arms defensively. "Damn it, you should've just listened to me..."

"Not a chance! Now, get ready, because you're going down!" Reimu shouted before flying for the man, lunging at him with her raised weapon. For the duration of the sudden, but refreshing change of pace, Reimu had failed to initially notice Marisa's participation, but it was quickly shrugged off with a smile midway into the scene. With the quick defeat of the unknown man came the consequent interrogation for his information, and Reimu and Marisa were soon back on track with a new objective regarding their trip to Zaban city.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

 _Just where could Marisa be...?_ Kasen overlooked the ground above her as she floated near a certain well-known lake covered in faint mist. _She isn't home or at the shrine and even the people in Eientei denied seeing her when I first went to ask; I haven't seen Reimu around either, and it's been weeks. I know the incident still isn't solved, but what would be making Reimu take so much time?_ Normally, all incidents would end up solved in the span of one day, with Reimu swiftly defeating the opponent. Now, however, the tensions of the Human Village remained, Nen was still rampant, and Reimu was nowhere to be seen. _I have a bad feeling about this incident, that's for sure._

Kasen had been drawn to the area she was currently over, as she felt a suspicious energy from afar which originated there. She noted a building colored a deep crimson from the faint shadow visible through the light mist, and approached the area. _Still, I wasn't expecting Nen near the Scarlet Devil Mansion,_ she thought as she took in more and more details of the western design of the awkwardly-placed manor. _Though, by now, it's faded so I assume whoever was here is gone now. Even then, I might find something out about Marisa's whereabouts if I ask the people in the mansion about it. If she's up and about right now, she must also be investigating._ With that in mind, Kasen shifted her gaze to the entrance, a wide metal gate dark in color currently semi-open.

To her surprise, the surrounding ground near the gate was filled with traces of struggle such as small craters and torn pieces of clothing, among other kinds of debris. Meanwhile, leaning against a wall adjacent to the gate was the gatekeeper, Meiling Hong stretching her arms as though sore. Kasen was certain the fight that had ensued was likely to have occurred between a Nen-user and Meiling, as her green dress was cut up and torn, even singed at the edges and her body was equally as scratched.

Immediately, she took to approaching the youkai, who tensed the moment she noted the lightly pink figure flying in her direction from afar. "Wait..." Meiling squinted Kasen's way, while Kasen crossed her arms as she eyed the debris surrounding her. "If I remember this right, you're that one hermit. The one who was guiding an outsider around?" Finally, Meiling smiled as she reminisced, considering simultaneously Kasen's identity as a respectable hermit of the mountain. "The mistress had a pretty good time thanks to you."

"Oh, you remember that?" Similarly to Meiling, Kasen smiled warmly as she reminded herself of Sumireko's disappointed frown when she realized the members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had set up their abode as though it were a horror house. She had realized by then that Kasen's tour was not going to be an especially serious one, and she had shot at her a flurry of petty complaints before ultimately leaving in a huff. The next time they had met, or so Kasen reminisced, Sumireko seemed like she had forgiven Kasen, and they spoke amicably at their meeting place. "If anything, I should be the one thanking you and your mistress for being so cooperative on such a short notice."

"Though, now that I think about it, the outsider herself didn't seem all too pleased with the mistress' efforts," Meiling vacantly commented while scratching her head, only to wince and retract that hand immediately. She offered Kasen an awkward smile afterwards, as if to alleviate any worry she could have about the matter.

Regardless, since it was closely related to her true business with the mansion, Kasen spoke with a concerned frown: "Are you alright? I've actually felt a strange presence from here and came to check, but it looks like you had to fight someone." She glanced towards the debris again, if only to have Meiling note their existence alongside her.

"Ah, well..." Meiling paused when she did follow Kasen's gaze, and her apprehensive smile widened the more she saw the damage she had inadvertently caused to the area surrounding her mistress' property. "There's this villager who sometimes challenges me to a duel, you see. He's always been hard at work perfecting his martial arts, but lately, he's awaken to the manipulation of Qi and has been testing out his powers on me, too." Though she had planned on keeping a polite smile, her surroundings combined with her own words warranted a bitter frown from Meiling, who could not suppress her honest negativity. "The fighting itself is alright, but I'm not sure he realizes I'm the one who has to clean the debris up after he's done..."

"Wait, _'Qi'_?" Meanwhile, Kasen's eyes widened in surprise the moment she processed the specific meaning of Meiling's words and she stepped forward out of impulse, leading Meiling to feel almost constricted to the wall she was leaning on. "Did you just say 'Qi'? Not Nen?"

Meiling reluctantly nodded, hoping that would get Kasen away from her. The gesture was effective, and Kasen did distance herself slightly, but she let silence take over the surroundings as if expecting Meiling to develop on her response. "I mean, that's also what the villager has been calling it, but I'm pretty sure it's just a more condensed Qi..."

 _Qi... The life force of all things?_ Kasen grimaced and her eyebrows furrowed as she cast her gaze to the ground, only to look towards Meiling again upon pondering further on the matter. "Why do you think that? As far as I've been able to tell, Nen-users are shrouded by the energy as if drawing it out from outer sources," Kasen said, "Wouldn't it make more sense to see Nen as some kind of magical power?"

"Huh? Magical power?" Meiling blinked in pure confusion, but shook her head quickly afterwards as her imagination denied Kasen's prospects. "There's simply no way that's magic," Meiling stated with added certainty, and eyed Kasen sympathetically, as if concerned for her health. "Are you sure you haven't seen something else that you just confused for what people are now calling Nen?"

Kasen frowned, feeling as though underestimated, but the lack of malice evident in Meiling could not hold the slight bitterness for long. Instead, Kasen insisted firmly, but calmly, "I'm perfectly sure. What I saw was a youkai using Nen to attack me. They were shrouded in the foreign energy, and their movements were far too precise to be normal. They were drawing power from somewhere."

Conversely, Meiling grimaced, as her attempts at comprehending Kasen's point of view continued failing the more she defiled the honorable image of Qi and Kasen through false hypothetical depictions of Kasen's account. Hoping to put that unpleasant feeling to a rest, Meiling shook her head slowly, and continued to regard Kasen as though worried for her wellbeing. "Like I said, that doesn't sound like it at all. Since I just fought someone who was using the strange Qi, I think I know what I'm talking about well enough to be certain," Meiling plainly explained so as to reach a consensus, her voice just as firm as Kasen's, with the slightest hint of pride. "Besides, Qi manipulation is also my ability, and you should know I'm a youkai. If there's anyone who's familiar with fighting with Qi, it's me."

"... Then, how did you see it?" Kasen asked after a few seconds of pensive silence, utilized to scrutinize Meiling's seemingly genuine elaboration. "How was your opponent using Nen?"

"Well, the villager is still lacking training, but it was clear he channeling his own life force and using it to enhance his physical prowess. This is why he was able to make these craters on the floor with his fists when I dodged his attacks." Meiling pointed to her right, where two craters (out of more in the surroundings) were plainly visible. "Basically, he was not manipulating something from the outside, but his own life force. It's clear he's had a great amount of time to train sensing the flow of Qi to begin with just to perform at that level," Meiling said as she nodded to herself. "Tai Chi Chuan is not just for show, you know? But then again, I'm sure that, as a hermit, you'd know about this as well as me." She then smiled weakly, as if in partial consideration for whatever condition Kasen happened to have, despite the origin of that smile lying in her own pride in her knowledge. "You must've just seen it wrong. It happens to anyone, really. There's no need to be ashamed."

Even if reluctantly, Kasen decided to truly ponder on Meiling's suggestions for a moment, as she cast her gaze to the ground, littered with stray pebbles and mysterious holes. _Did I just see it wrong, like she's saying? I was sure I'd sensed Nen; it was a foreign energy I'd never come across. But then again, the gatekeeper's description fits Marisa's attacker, and that youkai did act strange. So, in other words...?_ "Are you saying the only way someone could use Nen is to draw it from within?"

"If you were able to manipulate the Qi in your environment, it'd be nothing more than feng shui," Meiling easily responded, "but that's not something you can actually use for direct combat purposes. Considering this _Nen_ is just a more condensed Qi, it's clear it would have to be drawn from within." She frowned as she thought back to the opponent she had fought, but the expression belied confusion rather than resentment. "Though, why the villager's Qi became that way is beyond me..."

"Well, I hadn't even considered relating Nen with Qi, so I'm just as clueless, unfortunately." Kasen's stance lost its tension as she looked straight towards Meiling in an apologetic fashion, as if she had failed Meiling for her own ignorance. However, in the midst of other things to consider, Kasen continued speaking with a calm, mildly soft voice regardless: "Just for clarification, in your eyes, the villager's entire life force was like Nen?"

"Exactly," Meiling quickly asserted, indicating a lack of hesitation that could hardly be questioned. "I'd almost thought he'd become some sort of youkai, but he insisted it was something only humans could achieve. Strange, right? I don't see how other youkai wouldn't be able to manipulate their own life force like that if they trained hard enough."

Kasen's eyes widened in shock, but she did not raise her voice as she muttered, "Yes, that is strange..."

"But anyway, if you came here just to check on the presence you felt, I assume you don't actually have any business with the mansion itself?" Meiling asked for confirmation's sake as she removed herself from the wall and stepped to the side, closer to the gate.

Kasen shook her head. "No, I don't need anything from your mistress for now," she replied, only to offer a small smile. A forced one, in order to feign composure. "Though, I've also been searching for Marisa. Did you happen to see her at all for the past days?"

"Marisa? Not at all," Meiling said with slightly widened eyes, bewildered at the unexpected name that had slipped from Kasen's mouth. She followed that reflexively answer with a shrug, and she smirked. "Because of that, the mansion's been nothing if not peaceful, so I'm sure she hasn't passed by."

"With someone making craters near the premises, I'd hardly call the state of the area peaceful, but suit yourself, I suppose," Kasen remarked before stepping back from Meiling, whose eyebrows raised in slight curiosity from her course of action. "Either way, I should get going now; I wouldn't want to get in the way of your job. Though, I learned a lot about Nen, so you have my thanks."

Feeling sheer pride surging in her from the genuine show of gratitude, Meiling brightly smiled before waving her hand dismissively, ignoring the pain coursing through it. "Oh, this much was nothing! If you have any other questions about Qi, I'd be happy to answer them!"

"I'll keep that in mind!" Kasen exclaimed as she began to float in the air, away from the mansion dyed crimson. She had turned around, facing the mist covering the lake near the mansion, but she could still hear Meiling shouting out parting words. She did not bother answering to them, especially as she was far too busy with her own thoughts to really listen to someone who she had explicitely finished conversing with.

Instead, her mind was solely concentrating on the facts she had attained, and the truth behind Nen. It was clear to Kasen that Meiling's words were nothing but the truth. As someone who was able to manipulate Qi, it would be logical to assume she had the ability to see the lifeforce of others just as easily as Kasen could from her own training. However, unlike Kasen, Meiling had seen the human she fought as holding Nen within him that he could use in battle. In other words, the life force that he used to have had been replaced by Nen, or turned into Nen entirely, and that was the only way he could have stood to use the foreign energy.

As such, the human Meiling fought classified as a Nen-user, and the information Marisa had heard from her attacker was accurate. _Then, what about the youkai that attacked me...?_ There was one key difference between the humans Marisa and Meiling came across, and Kasen's attacker which contradicted the general principles Marisa had initially proposed about Nen: the foreign power was shrouding its figure, and nothing more. To begin with, were a youkai's life force to convert into one of another nature, its identity would be challenged to the point they would likely perish. For beings weak against mental attacks, it was only obvious that the conventional method for humans to become Nen-users did not apply to youkai. In fact, under that logic, it would be impossible for a youkai to ever take up Nen.

Kasen grimaced under that conclusion, her cold gaze affixed to the ground below her but unfocused, distracted by countless hypotheses. _If that youkai was not a Nen-user, but was gathering Nen, then what exactly was that supposed to be?_ The more Kasen recalled the situation, the more she focused on small details she had not previously seen as important: the youkai's calculated movements, its unusually sharp gaze, its eerie silence, as if not to reveal its state of mind; all of these signs that something could have been wrong with that youkai. However, Kasen had only concerned herself with the very existence of Nen, knowing it would cause an incident. To her, that youkai had only wanted to test its might on a well-known force in Gensokyo, and failed to prove its worth. She had let it escape for that very reason.

Now, knots in her stomach accompanied the prospect of having freed that youkai. A sense of danger justified her regret, because Kasen knew she was dealing with an unknown that functioned beyond the laws of nature applicable to humans and youkai. An unknown that could alter the fabric of reality with ease far too great for Kasen to passively allow for it. While uncertain, perhaps on edge over the implications that loomed in her mind, Kasen nodded to herself, if only for the sake of confirming the sole definitive affirmation her thoughts produced. _I definitely have a bad feeling about this._

With that in mind, Kasen's heart ached in concern for Reimu and Marisa as she flew through the skies of Gensokyo, devoid of their presence in ways she had yet to fathom.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The streets thinned by the abundance of stalls displaying a variety of products beyond their imagination would frequently slow down Reimu and Marisa's trek through the new city they had encountered, set for the Hunter Exam. Zaban city was bustling with people by midday, and the activity did not particularly cease by the afternoon, when the two were faced with the confusion inherent of the settlements of this dimension. However, unlike the city with Heavens Arena, the buildings were almost half as tall, and the shabby nature of most stores left much to be desired, especially on the outskirts. Reimu and Marisa had naturally treaded through the center and even the outskirts, but the crowds and tension built up simply due to the clear possibility of pickpocketing in the area rendered them devoid of productive results in their exploration, and the Sun was already starting to sink into the horizon.

In the middle of a distinctively calm residencial area of Zaban city, in which the streets were slightly wider and more hiding spots were available for suspicious activity, Reimu groaned loudly in her impatience. "I hate this stupid place!" She stomped through the pavement faster and more itensely than necessary, leading Marisa to have to mimic her pace so as not to be left behind mercilessly by the shrine maiden. "Why does it have to be so big, anyway?! If people even bothered sending us a flier, they could have just told us where the exam site is instead of making it needlessly complicated! Isn't an exam made to trim the numbers to begin with?! What's the point of preliminaries?!"

Meanwhile, Marisa grimaced wholeheartedly, tired from the needless effort of walking through the city and the slight anxiety that came from bearing witness to Reimu's blind rage at a close distance. She glanced through her surroundings, noting the houses, but the varying dark spaces from which people could hide in were also marking to her sight, and she wondered how safe this area was in comparison to the center of the city. Then, figuring there still would be no escape from Reimu, she directed her gaze Reimu's way and began to speak in an attempt to pacify Reimu, for her own sake: "The guy who signed us in did say this would happen, though. Can't say we didn't get any warnings."

"That doesn't mean just finding the exam site needs to be this convoluted!" Reimu sharply countered, feeling as though challenged by Marisa's failed attempt at weakening her anger. "Couldn't they just say where the navigators are so we could do the preliminary and get it over with?! It'd be much faster if I could just beat them up!"

Marisa blinked while processing the intensity of Reimu's needless shouting, only to grimace. _Nope. No hope here. She's angry for real._ "True, but I'm guessin' they want a future Hunter to know how to find any kinda thing, even a random place in a huge city," Marisa said, "You can't hunt it if ya can't find it."

"I know _that_ much! I wouldn't be this pissed off if I knew how to find the place in this needlessly huge city! It's not like we can know about the place without finding a navigator, and we haven't even found a preliminary test, let alone someone who can get us there!"

"Maybe they were all at the harbor place and we missed 'em," Marisa uttered those words reflexively and instantly regretted her carelessness, for Reimu's death glare was upon her in seconds.

"Don't you even joke about that with me! We are **_not_** flying all the way back there just to look for a preliminary that should be in the exact place they said it the exam was!"

"Yeesh, it was just a hypothesis," Marisa protested, "No way I'd wanna go all the way back, either."

"Then don't say anything at all! You're just throwing me off!"

"We're not even doin' anything by now, anyway," Marisa said, "How about instead of being angry and scary, we go ask around again and see how it goes? Better than just walking."

"That's easier said than done when we haven't see anyone in this street since the moment we entered it! Besides, most people don't know anything about the preliminaries!"

"Do we have any other choice, though?"

"How should I know?! There's **—**!"

Reimu and Marisa immediately shifted their gazes to their left, where the street would split into two different paths. From the leftmost path, they had heard a loud, high-pitched shriek of desperation, signalling an emergency for the voice's origin. Marisa followed Reimu as she dashed in the direction of that path, and both spotted a trembling female figure shadowed by the tree she was next to and the house behind her. "Help! He's running away with my purse!"

Further through the pavement was the fleeting afterimage of a man running into the horizon, who Reimu and Marisa assumed to be the individual responsible for the young woman's fear. However, they shot the young woman they were closing in on looks of distrust before facing the horizon once more. "You saw that thief's speed, right, Reimu?"

Reimu nodded without hesitation before responding, "It definitely wasn't something a normal person would be capable of."

"Yup. Just like how that kid was holdin' his own on a tipping ship." Marisa looked towards Reimu with a wry smirk, and Reimu stared into her in return. "Smells like a preliminary to me."

Then, Reimu broke into the first smile since hours of vacant walking and ranting within the bothersome city. "Finally!" she enthusiastically exclaimed, "There's no way I'm failing this now that I found the stupid test!" Reimu pointed to the horizon, and continued: "Marisa, we're chasing after this guy if it's the last thing we do!"

"Wait, what about the girl?" However, Marisa had shifted her gaze behind her, noting the young woman on the shade of the tree staring their way with teary eyes. Marisa's expression was nothing short of cold in regards to that, and she grimaced when she faced Reimu again. "If he's apparently stolen from her, there's a chance she's also an examiner."

Reimu mirrored Marisa's expression, but she did not cease to move and afforded the young woman no glance as her reasons for the equivalent emotion were differed from her friend's. "I thought about that, too, but I can't just let you be on your own if these people aren't normal!" she argued, "We should chase them one at the time!"

As though slightly disappointed from Reimu's reaction, Marisa huffed before taking her broom out of her back, kept in place by the straps of her backpack. "Even you should know that's a risky idea, Reimu!" Marisa retorted. "His headstart over us is already way too much for you to catch up, anyway, so just leave it to me and stick by the girl already!" She offered Reimu a smirk, and lifted her only hand as a parting gesture after she was already riding on the broom. "See ya when I pass!"

"Hey, wait!" Before Reimu could even reach out for Marisa, who just then had been position by directly by her side, she had set off into the sky and pursued the supposed thief. Reimu stopped her dash for the third and watched Marisa's figure disappear into the horizon at an even faster rate than the thief had, and she proceeded to sigh. "I know she probably won't need to fight, but she better not try anything reckless if I'm not there to cover for her..."

She turned around to face the young woman by the tree and strengthened her grip on her weapon simultaneously, but her frown only belied slight impatience. She approached her with a quick stride, and the young woman eyed her with furrow eyebrows, as though confused. "Hey, you," Reimu called out impassively. "You're also an examiner for the preliminaries, aren't you? Since I already split with Marisa, I'm not taking a no for an answer, by the way."

For a moment, the only sound produced in the area was a gust of wind, as the two women locked eyes. The sharp quality in Reimu's gaze contrasted with the young woman's initial attempt at averting her own, but Reimu only walked closer to the young woman. "Goodness..." the young woman uttered in a soft, though strained voice, as if trying to hide her own panic... But Reimu, unfazed, did not find herself surprised to see that behavior transition into a much bolder facet, presented through a sly smile. The young woman stood upright, and used a delicate hand to adjust the black bow on her white dress. "You don't pull any punches, do you? Haven't people called you a stick in the mud before?"

"Not once," Reimu easily asserted, as if no thought whatsoever had been put into the response. In truth, even if someone had ever called her that once or twice, Reimu would hardly recall such events, rendering any possible thought on it meaningless.

"Well, then, color me surprised," the young woman stated, her voice flat with disbelief, only to dismissively shrug. Then, she placed a hand on her waist, and confidently spoke: "Jokes aside, though, you and your friend weren't wrong: just like my partner who took off running with my purse, I'm an examiner here to see if you're fit for the Hunter Exam or not. Some people tend to think I'm just an innocent civillian who got robbed and others even forget about me because they get too busy chasing the supposed thief, but none of them made it to the exam site, that's for sure," she asserted, "I'm not about to pass applicants that can't even take two examiners into account for their test."

Meanwhile, Reimu blinked in wonder as she processed the young woman's simple explanation. "Does that mean I already passed?" she asked in pure curiosity, warranting a momentary scowl from the examiner in front of her.

"Of course not," the young woman snapped, perceiving almost that Reimu was giving no thought to the situation whatsoever. "That's just the pre-requisite to even qualify for our test. Now's when the real deal starts."

Practically let down by the fact that the test she was subjected to did not happen to be simple, straightforward and easy, Reimu sighed to subside her anger and firmly eyed the young woman. "Well, I'm ready for it, whatever it is," she stated resolutely, which aided her mood and reminded her of her main goal; she briefly pointed her weapon at the young woman, as if to taunt her. "Bring it on."

"I wonder if you'll keep up that attitude for long," the young woman snidely commented, only to reach out for a pocket on her short coat. From it, she was easily able to raise a rectangular device to Reimu's line of sight, but Reimu herself could find herself doing nothing but to tilt her head to the side in slight confusion. _Some kind of cellphone...?_ "This here is my only way of communicating with Serron, my partner in crime. He's also got one so he can reach me about your friend and her exam results. In other words, whether you two pass or fail depends on both Serron and I notifying each other. If only one of us knows, there won't be any point to it."

Disregarding the device she was unfamiliar with, Reimu's curiosity led her to instead ask, "Why is that?"

"It's simple: the moment you commit to doing this test, one of you is bound to fail depending on your choices," the young woman explained, "Since only one of you can pass, the one who passes first will fail the second applicant automatically. This is why communication between Serron and I is extremely important for your chances at this exam."

Reimu's frown deepened ever so slightly, but she was quick to speak regardless the moment a single impulsive conclusion was formed in her mind: "Then, Marisa's got to fail no matter what?" _There's no way I can afford to fail, after all._

The young woman saw the absent-minded question as a show of needless arrogance, and she struggle simply to grimace rather than to scrunch up her entire face in some disgust. "It could always be you who fails if your friend sacrifices you first," she countered with some intensity, but Reimu seemed only pensive in light of the opposing argument.

"But Marisa's got the handicap of needing to chase your partner," Reimu casually voiced, as though the line of logic were obvious enough not to warrant much emotion out of her. "So, if this is about how fast we can pass, I've got a clear advantage."

The young woman's grimace faded slightly when she did manage to understand that at least part of the reason for Reimu's confidence was rational, but she took to slyly smiling instead. "And who's to say Serron isn't giving her the test already?" She shot the question towards Reimu relentlessly, hoping it would stick to her mind, only to wryly add, "Trust me, if your friend wanted to, she could sell you out right now."

However, like everything else so far, Reimu did not seem to be particularly attentive to the young woman's underlying thought processes. "Sell me out?" Reimu absent-mindedly questioned as she cast her gaze down to the visible roots of the tree near the young woman. "Now that you mention it, you also said something about Marisa 'sacrificing' me first, but what exactly are we supposed to do to pass this?"

Forced to swallow the attempt at resentment, the young woman cleared her throat. "This test aims to gauge your willingness to make sacrifices, so you and your friend will be forced into deciding each other's fates. After all, as Hunters, you will generally be put in greatly dangerous high-staked situations, and a sacrifice or two should be expected out of the risks you'll be taking in your professions," she said in a cool, almost professional voice to emphasize the importance of her words. "However, each sacrifice has consequences, not all of them positive. In this case, whoever chooses to fail the other first will pass, and vice versa." Then, she mustered a dry smile, and watched as Reimu was starting to look up at her again. "Now, are you ready to make your choice? You can take your time, if you want. There's no limit."

Conversely, Reimu took about three seconds to mull over the rules. "Then, the only thing I need to do is choose before Marisa?" Reimu asked for the sake of confirmation, and the young woman nodded, albeit with fake composure.

"If you want to pass this test, that is."

Reimu pensively hummed for half of a moment, only to point to the young woman's supposed communication device in an almost neutral fashion if not for her noticeable frown. "And what if Marisa decides to destroy your partner's device so she doesn't hear my answer?"

"If she does that, she won't pass, either." The young woman shrugged after her quick and clean response, and added, "It'd just be counter-productive in the end."

"Besides, if the only condition here is one of us saying the answer faster than the other, there's no point in being separated, is there?" Reimu had then thrown another inquiry to the young woman just as fast, almost as if she had barely even heard or cared about the previous response. Reimu's eyes were narrowed, thoughtful at first sight, but the sheer speed almost implied her course of action was being decided by whims.

Even so, the young woman remained calm and confident, so as to neatly answer, "This is so you don't influence each other in the decision-making process, of course. We're looking for decisions that are purely yours." There was naturally no room for argument in her logic, and the young woman's polite smile remained plastered to her elegant features as she led Reimu to finally embrace silence for a longer, significant moment, dedicated to more genuine thought.

Ultimately, Reimu grimaced. She faced the young woman with an unwavering gaze, and bluntly remarked, "You know, all of this is really fishy. Aren't you supposed to be testing our willingness to make sacrifices?"

The young woman's eyebrows rose from supposed confusion, but her smile continued in place, almost unnervingly so if the tested applicant did not happen to be Reimu. "Isn't that exactly what we're doing, though?" she lightly retorted. "We're seeing which one of you is the most willing to make a sacrfice."

"See, that's the iffy part I'm hung up on right now," Reimu stated with ease, in a voice assertive enough to cut through any doubts the young woman's arguments could have birthed in the discussion. "As far as I know, a test of my willingness to make a sacrifice in comparison to Marisa isn't a test of my actual willingness to make a sacrifice." Reimu's eyebrows furrowed, and she gripped her weapon tighter even as her arms were crossed. "It's a duel between Marisa and I, with our chances of getting into the Hunter Exam on the line!"

Another moment, and the young woman blinked; she noted Reimu's determined expression, and knew that she was more than serious about her claim. As such, she chuckled wholeheartedly, and proceeded to vividly voice, "So what if it is? That doesn't make it any less of a test for you, and it doesn't change the fact that you can fail the Hunter Exam through it!"

"No, this makes all the difference!" Reimu fiercely argued, "Creating a preliminary test for the Hunter Exam where one person automatically passes just by being better than the other contradicts the purpose of the preliminaries existing! Without the condition of being able to pass and fail every applicant there to take the test, you wouldn't be able to filter the candidates that meet the Hunter Exam's standards in the first place! Basically, your test is a trap, and I'm not falling for it!"

"Oh?" The young woman smirked, her eyes plastered to Reimu's ardent expression. "What's your decision, then?"

Her arms released from their original position, Reimu had her weapon aimed at the young woman as though to clearly announce her intentions. "My decision is as simple as making sure I beat the real way to pass and get to the exam site out of you, like always!" Her stance tense, now fully alert, the young woman saw through the fighting stance, but failed to show herself concerned.

She rose her device higher to bring it to Reimu's attention, countering, "And you think I'd let you do that? I can always interpret your resignation as your own sacrifice and fail you on the spot."

"Not if you don't have the means to say that to your partner, you don't! Try to activate that thing even once, and I'll stick a needle through it!" While Reimu had been pointing her Purificaton Rod the young woman's way, her other hand was behind her back, as if the additional weapons on her arsenal were on stand-by. She stared at the woman, and did not change the carefree smile she had assumed since the moment she had announced her decision.

Even as a single minute passed in that state, Reimu was the very same; expectant. She waited for the other party's action, for a sign of the battle's start. However, she was instead faced with a soft giggle, and a genuine smile from the young woman. "It's a good idea in your context, but it won't be necessary now," the young woman cleanly stated, "After all, you just passed with flying colors."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Seeing as she had caught up to the man in less than a second with her broom, Marisa had initially wondered if her own speed was simply _that_ good, but was proven wrong the moment he anxiously picked up his pace and erased her cheeky smirk for the entire chase. She had still been able to catch up, but she felt a strange dissatisfaction from the prospect of barely having her flying speed be contested by someone who was only running. Furthermore, her success in remaining directly above the thief increased her boredom in regards to the chase, which soured her mood in some capacity. Regardless, she was certain the thief was meaning to guide her somewhere, so she tried her best not to ruin his moment and ask him for the directions so she could get ahead of him by herself (now _that_ was just cruel, Marisa had noted at the time).

After a few more minutes, the two had arrived at an alleyway by the end of the street, and Marisa had swiftly landed for an explanation of her test. Now was the precise point Marisa had connected all the logical dots in the content of the test, and she nodded to herself pensively in front of the man, Serron, who tightened the knot of his bandanna around his bald head in wait for Marisa's response. "So you're tellin' me that if I choose to pass first, Reimu fails 'cause I sold her out?" she questioned simply to summarize her gathered knowledge on the matter, though her unconvinced expression was telling of the little value she was placing on his words.

"Yup," Serron quickly uttered before crossing his arms and gauging Marisa's expression more calmly. "That's the main rule in this test." Despite all odds, Marisa's stance was casual, perhaps confident, but her gaze was sharp. Her eyebrows, while slightly raised as if from skepticism alone conversely indicated some level of concentration in the matter at hand, and Serron's own calm disposition suffered no changes even as her thin frown transitioned into a deeper, complex variant.

"That's weird, though," Marisa commented, "If the tests are meant to trim out the candidates that aren't worth their salt, it doesn't make sense that this one'd be just some messed up competition about sacrifices." To Serron's surprise, the gestures accompanying that exceedingly logical and pinpoint analysis were practically lazy in nature, and she phrased it as though it were a careless train of thought. He blinked momentarily as Marisa's exposition had occurred, but Marisa had failed to associate his confusion with the actual motive and assume instead he was attempting to catch up to her line of logic. Bluntly, she continued: "So, how the hell can this test make out which one of us is Hunter material?"

Serron supposed Marisa was still trying to wrap her mind around the test; he suppressed his confusion and offered a conversational smile. "We gauge your worth through your final decision," he succintly explained, "Choose your fate, and we'll decide if you're worth the exam's time."

Marisa lightly nodded as she pondered, only to add, "And you're judgin' our 'willingness to make a sacrifice', right?"

"Nothing more, nothing less," Serron responded, "The main criteria's just like I told you it was."

"Huh..." Marisa took another moment to consider the weight of Serron's words, but was quick to flinch and cease the process when an entirely new idea dawned on her. Although previously nothing more than casual and passive, Marisa's eyes now brightened with a wave of surprise and curiosity, and she eagerly asked, "Wait, can I also sacrifice myself for Reimu's chances? Does the sacrifice go both ways?"

Serron's smile faded, and concern surged in his darkened features. "It does go both ways," he slowly answered, as if to make sure the words sunk in for Marisa. "Still, you'd best think through something like that before you decide. After all, it's your chances that'll be at stake then." Regardless of his cautious tone, however, Marisa's quick-witted mind only spun faster with thought the moment she was given a solid confirmation from Serron.

 _Then it's just like I thought...! The point isn't how fast you make the sacrifice like they were makin' me believe, but the_ kinda _sacrifice ya make! So, Reimu and I are actually being tested on our willingness to sacrifice ourselves!_ "Yeah, I'm thinkin' over it, don't you worry," Marisa dismissively uttered, if only to ease Serron's seemingly overbearing presence. Even so, her own expression darkened as her thoughts moved ever forward, and she grimaced before speaking: "The real problem here is Reimu, not me: like you said before, if Reimu passes or fails, that weird thing ya got'll connect you to your partner and tell you all about it, right?"

Serron nodded. "Exactly." Against his expectations, Marisa's displeasure only intensified by the exceedingly simple response.

 _This is real bad,_ Marisa thought, _One thing's me, but another's Reimu. There's no way she'll have figured out the true nature of the test: the examiners are makin' it so it's not as obvious you can sacrifice yourself precisely so all the people who aren't thinkin' about others fail all that much easier. If Reimu never gets told about the choice she can make over this, she'll just sell me out thinkin' she'll pass for sure when it's all a ruse in the end._ For the sake of confirmation, Marisa asked while pointing to the thick black device Serron was holding, "So, you can talk to your partner whenever you want with that?"

"... Yeah," Serron said, but the slowness in the reply was now due to moderate confusion rather than worry. He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly. "So?"

"Can't ya also get me talkin' to Reimu? 'Cause I could really use talking to her right now."

In little time, all logical dots were connected, and Serron frowned as a result. He shook his head with closed eyes, only to explain, "Well, that'd be against the rules, miss. The sole reason you were separated was so you wouldn't influence each other's choices."

Marisa's eyes narrowed as though she were envisioning a despaired Reimu, crying over her failure in pursuing the incident. She scowled, and muttered with trembling fists, "Damn, so it's hopeless, then..."

"Are you doubting your friend? If I haven't gotten word of it, then she hasn't made a decision yet," Serron reassured, "It means she's giving real thought to it."

Marisa looked up at Serron then, her eyebrows furrowed. "Real thought? Reimu?" As though she were combining foreign words, Marisa's questions barely passed as such, and she hardly dwelled on them, as well. "She's not dumb, but goin' with the flow's her thing most of the time. Unless ya made it so she got serious, there's no way she'd start giving real thought to this." _But then again..._ "Now that you mention it, though, Reimu's sure taking her time selling me out. You sure you'd get notified right away if she decides anything?"

"If I didn't, how would she pass?" Serron quickly retorted, but Marisa was able to remain doubtful of the question.

She grimaced, and argued, "But you're not about to tell me the kinda decision she made if it means influencin' mine. Doesn't that already make it possible you're actually not supposed to tell me about Reimu's results?"

"You could make that argument, but the only thing I'm notified of through this device is whether she passed or failed, and not the kind of decision she made," he said before shrugging, as if to minimize the importance of the topic. "You can just assume that through the results themselves."

Marisa absorbed that information in silence, with her hand positioned below her chin. The moment passed quickly for Marisa, but Serron was almost counting the seconds until her mouth opened to cautiously speak: "So Reimu hasn't decided anything for real yet, huh? You're a hundred per cent sure of that?"

Serron asserted, "You'd know otherwise."

Marisa's frown immediately deepened as she further weighed her options regarding the test. In fact, the more she considered Reimu's circumstances, the more her eyebrows furrowed, and her gaze narrowed. "Well, that makes things harder on me," she remarked in an almost casual fashion, though her expression indicated the level of displeasure attached to the amount of trouble she was seemingly involved with due to Reimu. "If Reimu hasn't made a decision yet and failed herself, I gotta make sure she doesn't mess up like that on my own."

"And what are you gonna do?" Serron expectantly asked, "What's the choice you're gonna make?"

"What I'm gonna do is..." Marisa's arm rose as though to propel a throwing motion, but there was nothing on her hand that Serron could spot in the few seconds he had to process the movement before it truly affected him. **"This!"** Entirely beyond his expectations, Marisa's hand released fractions of colorful light that were shot in his direction after the application of slight friction from a snap of her fingers.

"Wha...!" The bout of pure magic was fast enough to bewilder and paralyze the normal civillian, but Serron's quick reflexes warranted him a near perfect motion: he ducked, and ran forward before the stars would reach his height, only to stand again. Dodging between the stars, even if the gap between them allowed for the action was risky at best with the lacking mental preparation, but even ducking was a movement reliant on luck, and Serron was less than a step away from Marisa through his actions.

He had taken to jumping aside in fear of being targeted with further magical stars as he stood up, but Serron almost froze upon noting only a shadow filling the space where Marisa's feet had previously been stationed. His gaze shifted upwards, and not even the shadow remained. In the time taken for his head to rise, Marisa had become a blur at the corner of his eye, sped up by the mysterious properties of a shabby bamboo broom. Now that he thought about it, Marisa had placed her hand behind her just after she had released the stars: it was clear she knew the display would shock Serron enough for his mind to be slightly shaken and focus only on dodging the attack rather than Marisa's action. The trick was simple, perhaps far too much so for Serron to have expected it, but even as he looked up, thinking Marisa's position would be above him so as to exploit the obvious weakness of being unable to fly, there were only walls and the blue sky in sight.

The moment Serron realized that, he was already too late. Marisa's sheer speed, even if aided, bestowed him almost no openings. Although Serron did turn around from the sensation of the wind he had noticed after his thoughts, he only was able to finally conclude Marisa's aim when he felt something pressed to his back. "Move, and I'll shoot," Marisa warned in a low, slow and careful voice, unlike everything Serron had witnessed from the quirky young woman. "Just your legs, though. I need that right hand ya got to drop the device for me." Naturally, the momentary cool presence lasted only seconds, and her attitude seemed increasingly awkward for the situation now that Serron could truthfully process it. "Then I'll shoot that. Hope it wasn't expensive 'cause I'm blowing a hole on it."

Serron's anxious trembling ceased. Though he hardly would ever admit it, the cold sweat coursing down his back was but one of many signs he was aware of the threat the injured young woman was posing through what he assumed to be a pistol. Now, however, he was certain Marisa's killing intent was exceedingly low, and her ambush set up solely to force him to act in spite of her physical weakness. Knowing she could never take the device by pure force, Marisa acted swiftly to prove her worth and drop the rectangular device on his right hand. The thought process warranted a smile Marisa could not see, and Serron willfully dropped the device. "There. Happy now?"

"Not until I get you far, far away from the thing," Marisa stated, "That's when it'll get a hole." Serron's smile widened, and he noted the slight movement of the weapon behind him that seemed to signal his necessity to follow Marisa.

He did not move, and instead spoke: "You were right back then, you know? You were never supposed to hear Reimu's results. If anything, she's passed already." Marisa's motion stopped immediately. A moment of silence ensued, and Serron remained still even under the threat of Marisa's gun.

"... Wait, what?"

The predictable reaction warranted a chuckle out of Serron. "Surprised, huh? The device works, but it's only used when the other applicant made the wrong choice. Not that you'd have known for sure without any evidence. Just the hypothesis is a step in the right direction."

"Then, what're you tryin' to say?" Marisa asked insistently, her grimace invisible to Serron; even so, the confusion in her voice was clear. "That I almost passed?"

Serron easily shook his head. "I'm saying you passed for real. The only thing you needed to do was to make a situation where I couldn't fail you or your friend, and that's exactly what you did," he explained in a manner far too calm for someone threatened with a weapon, Marisa noted, but that appeared to be because he was telling her the truth, shockingly enough. "You didn't sacrifice anyone in the end."

Marisa countered, "But, the test **—** "

"The test was on your willingness to make a sacrifice. You could've passed the test I gave you, but you wouldn't have passed the first one if you just up and decided to make a needless sacrifice. After all, I never said dropping out was against the rules."

Marisa's unfocused gaze pictured the void of a logical train of thought as she made sure to keep the eight-trigram furnace to Serron's back in an attempt to stop him from turning around and seeing her awed expression. She blinked, disconcerted, but proceeded to clear her throat. "I knew that," she loosely stated. _No way I'd know that. How'd I go assumin' the test itself's a decoy for the real thing? Sure, it didn't make much sense from the get-go, but I just thought it was testing how much I cared about Reimu and not about how much sense it made. Besides, why'd the test and the condition of sacrificin' yourself have to be a decoy? Just how many decoys do ya need?_ "The point's to have a low willingness to make a sacrifice, right?"

Serron took a noticeably long time to nod, but Marisa liked thinking it was just because of the weapon on his back. "People like thinking self-sacrifice is always the best choice. But then again, how many times does self-sacrifice end up hurting the other party? You should think about that, not just as a Hunter, but as a person." Serron finalized the explanation with simply those words, and they rung with moderate weight in Marisa's light. The first reaction, naturally, was a casual remark on the surprising depth behind the set-up. It did not last long in face of the real thought placed on the issue Serron had surfaced.

Finally, Marisa lowered her weapon. She pondered on her own presence around Reimu, supposedly limited by her injury. Her gaze drifted to the cast, and she cursed the fact that she had truthfully thought to sacrifice herself for Reimu without even reaching the Hunter Exam. That itself was just another moment of thought, before she considered how exactly Reimu saw the test she was presented with; not that she would ever conceive an accurate answer to such an inquiry. When she did look up, towards Serron who had turned around, Marisa noted him eyeing her pensive expression, and pocketed her weapon.

"I just told Emmye you passed, by the way," he said. The more she did observe Serron, the more she was seeing that one of his hands was near a pocket of his jeans. The other one was on his bandanna, seemingly to readjust it again.

"You did? I didn't hear a thing," Marisa retorted with a frown.

"I sent her a message," Serron responded, "She said she was heading over here at the time, so they're probably nearby."

"Huh..." She let that fact sink in for a moment, and ignored the tiny sliver of a thought taunting her for having taken all that much longer than Reimu to pass the test. Then, she spoke with little changes to her lightly curious expression: "So I don't have to wait that long for Reimu to arrive?"

"If you'd passed first, we would've been closing in on your friend's location ourselves," Serron said before narrowing his eyes Marisa's way. "I wouldn't let you get close enough to interfere, though." That had been Marisa's first idea upon hearing the hypothesis, so she flinched involuntarily and glanced to the side.

"Like I'd bother," Marisa quickly voiced as if to ease Serron's worries, but his unchanging judging gaze and frown only seemed to intensify. As such, Marisa took to slightly changing the focus of the topic. "I'd be worried about Reimu if I were you. She wouldn't have hesitated to fly right in." She nodded to herself in order to transmit confidence in her words, while Serron's eyebrows rose faintly from skepticism.

"Well, if she did, both of you would fail on the spot," he succintly uttered, leaving no room for argument, just as intended.

"And why would I have to fly in for you to begin with?" Marisa turned around, while Serron walked past her so as to spot more than the origin of the voice Marisa found familiar. The assertive stride of the two young women lined up side by side defined the confidence in their actions, but that held differing reactions from Serron and Marisa: Serron smiled, locking eyes with his sly partner; Marisa, on the other hand, grimaced upon seeing her friend, whose accusatory voice implied the insensitive attitude Marisa was so used to witness from Reimu. "The last thing I'd do is sacrifice my chances for yours. Unlike you, I'm taking the exam for important reasons here."

Marisa looked towards Serron, only to point at Reimu. "See my point? That's the kinda person I was picturin' when I made my decision," Marisa affirmed, leading Serron to offer her a wry smile after a second or two of no reaction on his part.

"I definitely understand where you're coming from, but she's a little sharper than she looks," Emmye interjected as she approached Serron, having walked past Reimu precisely so as to line up with her partner. Meanwhile, Reimu positioned herself near Marisa with crossed arms.

"I'm plenty sharp," Reimu accusingly asserted, "You two are just talking nonsense."

The firm statement was enough to further remind Marisa of her shortcoming in relation to Reimu, and warranted a bitter frown out of her when she did lock eyes with her friend. "How'd you manage to figure out the test, anyway?" she asked, though creased eyebrows already implied low expectations for the response.

Regardless, Reimu shrugged as though carefree, and said, "I just felt something was off about what she said and went with the first thing that popped to mind."

Marisa's head hung low for a moment, and her posture lacked in tension under Reimu's easygoing nature. Even so, her expression did manage to soften, though she dryly uttered, "Figures."

"What's so wrong with that?" Reimu shot back with a frown, "It requires thought, too. It's not like my head's empty or anything."

Marisa looked up towards Reimu again to offer a small, wry smile, as though it were only partially genuine. "C'mon, nobody said that," Marisa voiced if only for the sake of pacifying her, before truthfully recalling a topic capable of smoothly changing the mood of the conversation. "Besides, I'm at least glad your first thought's not sellin' me out after all." Now, her smile had become more friendly than before, even conversational, and while she would have very lightly punched her shoulder, Reimu was by her right side, and Marisa did not feel like turning her only functioning arm around for a simple reflexive gesture.

... Meanwhile, Reimu flinched unbeknownst to Marisa, but she mustered an apprehensive smile to see if it could match the tone enough to hide the fact that she may or may not have initially thought to sacrifice Marisa's chances at the exam. "Exactly. That's saying a lot, considering your injury," she confidently said, only to frown pensively, her gaze now focused more on the nearby wall than on Marisa. "But then again, from the way you handled the test, I might have been underestimating you all this time, admittedly enough."

Marisa's eyes widened somewhat, and she immediately uttered, "Wait, you were watchin' me?"

"We weren't close enough to hear you, but we did have a view of what was going on," Emmye replied from near Serron in a nonchalant fashion comparatively to Marisa.

Her gaze then shifted to Reimu, who had nodded along her words and looked towards Marisa once more. "I didn't have to actually attack her, so I wasn't expecting you of all people to do something like that," Reimu added, "and succeed, to boot."

The new piece of information regarding Reimu's version of the test had Marisa frown as she thought of her own. "I wasn't expecting to make it, too," she plainly said, "but I couldn't drop out if I didn't make sure he wouldn't fail ya." Afterwards, she glanced towards her cast, and reminded herself of Serron's words, wondering if Reimu had truly been told something similar or not. "Besides, having a broken arm doesn't mean I'm useless."

Reimu's own frown deepened, and she, too, snuck a glance at Marisa's cast. In the surfacing memories concerning Marisa's actions so far, she could not help but stare into Marisa intently, though her expression was strangely calm, if not slightly apologetic. "Well, it's at least clear you're trying not to get in my way," Reimu said, "so I suppose there's no harm in keeping you around, either." The apologetic hint did not last long, however, and Reimu's intent gaze was but a glare in Marisa's direction. "Just make sure you run away if there's something really dangerous if I'm not there, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah." Marisa waved her arm dismissively, and Reimu abstained from a reaction to the gesture, as if that response were exactly what she was expecting from Marisa. On the other hand, Marisa turned to Serron and Emmye with a smile. "More importantly, though, we all passed, huh?"

"No doubt about that," Serron stated as he walked for Reimu and Marisa, but not so as to approach them. Instead, he was aiming to reach the communication device he had dropped when Marisa had been threatening him, and he spoke as he squatted to grab at it: "While failing the test would be the same as failing the Hunter Exam preemptively, dropping out and finding another preliminary wouldn't be a demerit. That's why dropping out and sacrificing nothing was the best choice, and that's what you did."

Just as he was standing and returning to his position by Emmye's side, she continued his explanation with a playful smile: "Since the test itself reveals a lot about the kind of people you are, it's not only a good way to judge your willingness to make a sacrifice, but also skills like your logical deduction, decision-making, observation and mental fortitude, not to mention your strength. If you manage to get us cornered, you're not just any person." She placed a hand to her hip, and eyed Serron expectantly.

Serron smiled in return, only to further elaborate on his previous words now with his gaze fixated on Marisa, who blinked curiously: "When we were just watching you to decide on the kind of test we'd go for, we figured you'd fail because of your injury, but from the broom to the strange magic you have, you look like you're good enough to cover for the broken arm with other tools. Being able to adapt to your circumstances and make good use of your arsenal's a capability good enough for me to consider you'll go farther in the exam than you're supposed to, but the thing that's really got me convinced is your quick wit. You might've gotten yourself a little confused here and there, but you figured everything out in one go, and you made the right choice in the end knowing that'd be the most benefitial, just like you were supposed to." Marisa scratched the back of her head sheepishly as she processed what she considered to be another rush of compliments simply for passing some small test, but made a point not to appear as flustered as she would have been through displaying a smile.

"She was also the first person to mention me being another examiner, so bonus points for quick thinking from me," Emmye effortlessly interjected before pointing to Reimu, who appeared entirely unfazed by the sudden attention. "Her friend, on the other hand, is quick in another way. She's good at picking up on tiny things, and making a decision right away, without turning back. That kind of assertive attitude's great for real worst-case scenarios, and I'm sure it'll help her in the long run. When she started threatening me, I knew right away she wasn't leaving me any openings, so I passed her then and there."

Seeing the evaluation as more than obvious, Reimu did not react, and instead locked eyes with Emmye. "It was either that or getting beaten up, so I'm sure the choice was obvious," Reimu remarked nonchalantly, putting the topic to a swift ending. "Anyway, it's good that we passed, but that's not all there is to it, right?"

Marisa snapped her head in Reimu's direction, having finally understood Reimu's dismissive attitude towards the results of the test itself. With faintly wide eyes and a contrastingly casual stance, Marisa asked, "Oh, ya mean they're really Navigators?"

"They better be," Reimu stated while sparing Marisa only a glance, as she did not intend to let the two examiners out of her sight. "I'm not about to go searching for more troublesome preliminaries."

Noting Reimu's sharp gaze and exceedingly imposing presence, Emmye smirked as though amused. "Then you were definitely in luck," she said, "because we do happen to be Navigators for the Hunter Exam."

"So miracles do happen," Marisa remarked in wonder, only to vacantly glance towards Reimu with a shrug. "Should've expected that out of Reimu, though." _She's always gettin' by on luck._

Emmye, however, did not fully grasp the meaning behind Marisa's last statement, so she resorted to justifying herself in order to clear a misunderstanding: "We're always near the exam site, so any applicant that isn't being guided by somebody else they found from some other preliminary ends up running into us," she explained in a matter-of-fact manner, "Having an applicant that's managed to avoid falling into any trap not get to the exam site from a lack of Navigators nearby would just be pitiful, no?"

"Besides, we usually travel around, so it's no big deal to us," Serron added, "Finding people worth getting to the exam's always nice, too. Thinking some of them are travelling around as Hunter's nothing short of gratifying."

"Which means you're really motivated to take us to the exam site, right?" Reimu smiled their way, conveying nothing but simple, faint delight; an innocent kind that bluntly belied Reimu's priorities and intentions, none of them malicious.

Emmye giggled. "Something along those lines," she snidely responded before gesturing to the alley's exit. Now, her smile was strangely sweet, while Serron winked Reimu and Marisa's way. "So, what are you waiting for? If you don't follow us, you won't get anywhere."

"Don't go losing us, though," Serron loosely warned, "We won't be coming back for you."

"Huh? What do you mean with **—** "

Without even listening to Reimu's full inquiry, Emmye and Serron were already dashing through the alley. "Consider it another test! You wouldn't be a future Hunter if you didn't manage this much!" Emmye in particular had been facing Reimu and Marisa because she was holding Serron's hand, but her figure in general was already becoming exceedingly small in comparison to when she was nearby.

Reimu and Marisa exchanged glances while inwardly commenting on the examiners' speeds. Regardless, as they nodded in synch expressing their simultaneous plans, they allowed a small smile to slip by before they flew for Serron and Emmye. "Hey! Wait right there!" The shout had no effect on the examiners themselves, but it served to further amplify Reimu's motivation, and she proceeded to follow after Marisa in the sky, content with her secured entry in the exam. The trip ultimately took less time than the two had expected, and they were met with a sight they did not expect when Serron and Emmye enthusiastically showed the way to the unassuming shop constituting the elusive site of the Hunter Exam.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

A familiar pressure accompanied a meal neither Reimu nor Marisa were expecting to be faced with. Naturally, they did not voice any complaints regarding the free food, but they had not thought the tiny room they had entered after being guided by the two examiners was an elevator bringing them to a lower floor. Had they not been familiar with Heaven's Arena, they would have been greatly confused at the weighing sensation of the descending elevator, but now it was nothing they would put into question; it was simply an elevator. An apparatus that Gensokyo was unaware of, decorated like a miniature version of a restaurant, with the table and full-course meal included. Somehow, only the food could dazzle them.

Said food was no more at the moment. Reimu and Marisa, though they had only noticed the moment they entered the restaurant, urged by Emmye and Serron, had not eaten anything since they had left the ship taking them to Dolle Harbor, and the afternoon was soon coming to an end. However, by the time they had finished eating, Reimu and Marisa leaned back on their respective cushioned chairs with content smiles, simply taking in the gentle smell of grilled beef that remained in the room.

Then, the elevator stopped at the very lowest floor. Reimu and Marisa's seats shook from the sudden halt and had almost gotten them to fall backwards to the floor if not for their quick reflexes in grabbing at the table, which seemed to be affixed to the floor by comparison. "Man, we're there already?"

Reimu sighed, glancing dejectedly at the opening doors of the elevator. "It definitely looks like it," she said while turning the chair she was sat on to the elevator's direction so as to get a clear view of what lay beyond it. Contrasting with the light colors of the room she was in, the area outside was dark and damp, with only faint lighting providing a faint notion of its considerable size. Though it could accommodate more than hundreds of people, only a few could be seen in the distance, most of them separated from each other, way of the surroundings. "But I was honestly expecting a fancier-looking place than that for some infamous exam."

"Guess it's for the gritty aesthetic." Since Reimu's back was turned to where Marisa was originally situated, she was surprised to see Marisa standing by her side, squinting at the space left by the open doors so as to get a glimpse of the exam site. "Maybe Hunters are supposed to like dark caves, I dunno." After concluding she could not see the applicants very well from the elevator, Marisa turned to Reimu with a blank, snide frown. "You ever gonna leave that chair or what?"

With an overly forceful push of the chair, hitting the table behind it, Reimu stood, practically jumping from it while both of her hands held onto its arms. As she let them go, she scowled, though her gaze was focusing only on the elevator's exit. "Fine, whatever. Let's just get this over with." Reimu walked out of the elevator, while Marisa followed behind her with a smile as she pondered on what sort of exciting trials the Hunter Exam could contain. Reimu, however, was more focused on the exam site itself, which seemed to have walls partly covered in metal. Gigantic metallic tubes coursed through the edges of the walls, something Reimu's gaze was following with lacking enthusiasm. "Though, I do hope this isn't the actual Hunter aesthetic. Is this why that Nen thing is so horrendous?"

"Really reminds me of that incident," Marisa pensively commented, "Ya know the one."

Reimu groaned immediately, needing little thought to understand what exactly Marisa was referring to considering the cavernous surroundings. "The one with the Underworld? Don't even remind me of that gloomy atmosphere or the scorching heat; going there was a huge pain."

"I always just associated it with the hot springs, but that's one way of seein' it." Marisa shrugged, seemingly unaffected by Reimu's negativity. Instead, her curious gaze hovered over the area, only to remain on an approaching, green-skinned individual with a white bag over his right shoulder.

Round eyes marveled Marisa with polite interest, and Marisa could not help but stare back with genuine fascination, conversely. "Hello." He stretched his hand out to Marisa, which was grasping a sizable badge mirroring the color of his bag, excepting the number '76', which was written on its center in black, big enough to be legible at a distance. "Please take a number."

While confused, Marisa nodded and took the number tag with her free hand. "Sure," she said before flipping the badge around in an attempt to scrutinize the object's purpose and what it constituted of to begin with in detail.

As such, she had started to pay little mind to the short, green man and did not notice him walking towards Reimu, who immediately shot him a perplexed look. Regardless of Reimu's behavior, the man smiled and took a number tag from his bag, which he then presented to Reimu with an extended, gloved hand. "Please take this, and make sure to wear it on your chest at all times so you never lose it."

Reimu assumed he was some sort of staff member, and since she had identified the tags from the few people she had tried to observe through the elevator, she did not hesitate to grab hers; on it was the number '77'. However, much like Marisa, Reimu ended up fixated on the number tag, wondering how to wear it. Feeling a prickly surface on the backside of the foreign object, Reimu turned it around and immediately found herself understanding she was meant to puncture her clothing with it so as to tie it to the badge itself, only to close it by connecting the needle-like part to the specific silver orifice, tiny as it appeared to Reimu. Her expression neutral towards the development, she placed the number tag on the left side of her yellow tie with little difficulty and looked up at Marisa, who smirked triumphantly with her tag situated on her arm's cast. It seemed as though she had not heard the man tell her to wear it on her chest, Reimu noted, but did not care enough to voice it out loud.

Instead, Reimu finally faced the exam applicants with a curious, albeit easygoing gaze. She was not able to see as well from the elevator, but she, as well as Marisa, could now sense the sheer tension exuding from the people present. Their eyes were plastered to Reimu and Marisa in an attempt to weigh their strength, and the two could almost feel the intensity of the thoughts pertaining their perceived skill. Without a shadow of a doubt, the majority of the exam applicants saw Reimu and Marisa as rivals to be wary of, as if opponents in a high stakes competition.

Even more than the dedication Marisa had previously witnessed, what she and Reimu were experiencing now was a type of animosity that branded them as a potential enemy. While Marisa shrunk with caution, scrutinizing them back, Reimu, while scowling at the unwarranted situation, seemed to have her right hand, the one holding her weapon, twitch almost as if in excitement for what was to come; a true conflict, akin to an incident she could be used to. Such were the feelings and expectations that marked the beginning of their Hunter Exam, equally implying a long-awaited progress in their adventure.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Seems almost like I just cut it off, but if I didn't, it would have continued for too long and made this chapter involve too many things. In that sense, the real meat of the story will start on the next chapter, and I'm sure you'll have some idea of what could await you there so there's no need to ramble about it! Instead, I can most surely talk about more Hunter x Hunter exam research ^^' I'm not sure if that's especially riveting for you lol but still.

As far as I can tell, Gon and the others arrive at the very limit, though it was daytime when they were outside the restaurant right before going into the exam site. This implies that you can arrive before that day, making the entry period be longer than a day, basically. I theorize this is the entire first week of January, which is why Gon was so freaking late, seeing as he decided to depart at the very start of that week. With this, you can imagine how early you'd have to arrive to have numbers before 100 or 200, and marvel at how early Tonpa arrived since he's number 16. Another thing that I theorize is that there is no required number of preliminaries you must go through to be able to enter the exam site. If anything, being able to skip through all of the Hunter Association's assembled traps would likely be considered a skill of its own, which is why someone like that would most likely have no trouble entering the exam site.

You only are not allowed to enter the exam site if you fail a preliminary exam, or so I see it. Gon and the others go through three preliminaries, but there are others who could have gone through more or less, making you getting to the exam site without getting caught up in all that be something formidable in and of itself. Even then, there are more things than preliminary exams, such as mere traps, like the bus one in Dolle Harbor. The preliminary phase of the exam is pretty much just to trim the candidates that aren't good enough by laying down all this shit so they can be failed as quickly as possible. Well, in essence, I'm saying all of this because I honestly bet that's how it would be in Hunter x Hunter, and it wouldn't make much sense that there would be specific preliminary exams that all hunter applicants must go through if there are so many paths you can take just to reach the exam site. It makes more sense for there to be multiple tests spread out that you can or can't encounter.

Anyway, I had Chapter 7 written in a completely different way from right now, and I had already known I'd go and change it when I had to edit it, but I ended up taking a huge while and changed much more than I had thought regardless, so a good chunk of the Author's Notes were rendered useless. Meaning I pretty much cut it all out, so a few of these sentences are now from present me and not past me when this was being written. Regardless, the scene with Miko was an idea I had already been thinking about, but I only wrote it down later on, when I finally knew exactly what I was going to do with it. Naturally, I always love writing Miko, but I also try my best not making her too awesome just because I personally like her character better than, for example, Eirin. To begin with, pretty much all Touhou characters tend to be fallible, so I make a point of trying to make their flaws show because an integral part of Touhou's characterization is how flawed every character is. Miko is a badass, sure, but she's also got this good number of flaws that make her all that much better as a character: she always has this mental plan in her mind because she's such a genius she's pretty much thought everything through. However, not everything goes according to plan, and this constitutes as one of Miko's downfalls, in my opinion; she trusts her own judgment so much that whatever she's already decided is pretty much fact. Then, if the circumstances contradict it, she actually gets screwed over because of this tendency.

Otherwise, she's actually pretty receptive to people and ideas. Rather, I think Miko's smart enough to know that's the wisest course of action to take. If Yukari's an inhumane genius, Miko's a human genius to me. Ironically so, since she's trying to overcome humanity and ascend to greater heights. In this spectrum, Eirin's another inhumane genius, and it just so happens that Eirin's basically Omoikane and is millennia older than Miko, so I didn't think it would make sense for Miko to just steamroll Eirin right away even though she doesn't even know anything about Eientei. For a character like Miko, I think the interaction was interesting, while Eirin felt more like she was steering everything in her favor and humoring Miko. Eirin's pretty condescending, really, but she's also smart. Naturally, though, she's not infallible. Such is the greatness of Touhou. For now, Miko got rekt, so what's to come out of Miko's efforts? Besides the scene with Miko and Eirin was of course the scene with Meiling and Kasen, which was not my idea. Well, the inclusion of Meiling was not my idea, but the set up to the scene and the scene itself, I did think up because I honestly really like Meiling, so if there's a chance I can put her and it'd fit with the storyline, I'll take it.

Meiling's a pretty refreshing character to write, to be honest. She's all conversational and simple-minded; those kinds of characters are usually really easy to write for me. If anything, Kasen's more complex a character, and she holds a variety of secrets, so I had to be more careful writing her than I did Meiling. Either way, speaking of being fallible, Kasen also tends to get screwed over by her own notions. This is more because Kasen's close-minded than anything: she's secretive and self-righteous, so it's easy for her to convince herself of something without really exposing it to someone else and thinking she's always in the right. However, this isn't something that always happens, and Kasen can totally change her mind. I think. I just keep getting flashbacks of Kasen's worst moments, hahaha. Anyway, I gave the shout-out above, but thank you again! Writing Meiling was totally worth it!

As for the preliminaries, well, they suffered the most changes. If anything, you should praise the people who created their own Hunter Exam preliminaries and made them make sense because it is _hard_ to come up with these things. The concept is already silly enough for me to struggle thinking of a way to introduce this into the journey to the exam site, let alone its concrete content. I had to take a long time just thinking about something that works, and it ended up a really roundabout kind of test. I _think_ it works, because a Navigator's got more of a duty to test an applicant's general character and prowess than other examiners, and the fake test was just backdrop to the true test, in which the choice to sacrifice yourself was just a trap for people who are too willing to do such reckless actions. There was an actual way to see through this trap, by the way: if you think about it, choosing to sacrifice yourself is paradoxical to the fake test because, if the point is to decide first and pass because you're the most willing to make a sacrifice, choosing to lose your chances at the exam would make it so the other party passes despite not meeting the exam's requirements, defeating its point. Since supposedly, the examiners would have to announce this to each other, it starts making even less sense if choosing to sacrifice yourself is possible. In other words, this is a deliberate hole to fail applicants who can't see through it.

Marisa, however, saw it in a different angle which ended up being her downfall lol Marisa's part was the best though because she was onto the test right away but then she decided to think too hard about it and was almost going to screw herself over if not for the ultimate logical hole: how come Reimu hadn't sacrificed Marisa yet? I thought that just made too much sense for Marisa. Personally, when it comes to intelligence, Reimu's not dumb, but she just doesn't really make a point to think hard about most things. She usually just goes with the flow: she sees a thing, makes a decision and sticks to it. Can she reach nice conclusions, though? Yes. Like in Urban Legend in Limbo when she figured out the Lunar Invasion, for example. Still, Reimu tends to go at things recklessly and by intuition, and that's more or less what happened here. Meanwhile, I think Marisa's just a little smarter than Reimu; it's not a huge difference, though. Marisa figured out how to beat Okina by herself, for example. Marisa just seems to rely on logic more than Reimu does usually, which makes her just a little better at that kind of thing. Even so, Reimu and Marisa seem to be more or less at the same level of intelligence.

I changed the preliminaries a lot, but the one thing that stayed the same were the examiners. Emmye, the sly one and Serron, the laidback guy. Kinda. I wanted a duo because I felt like it'd be more fun if it were two instead of one, and it'd make Reimu and Marisa have to face the test alone. Previously, Marisa was paired up with Emmye and Reimu was paired up with Serron, but I switched that around because it was just better that way. Though, Marisa and Emmye made a pretty good dynamic (but then again, Marisa's got a good dynamic with virtually everyone). Like Eorn, Emmye and Serron had some background to their character and more stuff, but I didn't fit it in because it didn't have a place in the narrative; if anything, I have no idea how anime and manga can so smoothly insert side character background information into a story, hahaha. Serron's one of the fastest men (who aren't using Nen) in the world, and Emmye's his partner (they're not actually together) and an ex-con artist. Rather, the two of them used to be con-artists, then they tried to be Hunters, didn't make it and now travel around the world teaching people about how not to get scammed (Emmye wrote a book and they do seminaries and well whatever it doesn't matter). Serron's also trying for the Hunter x Hunter olympics, if they exist lol

Something curious about Hunter x Hunter: in the manga, Gon and the others actually get a nice serving of dat grilled meat while going down the elevator, just like how I did with the story. However, in the 2011 anime, Gon and the others arrive to a circular table that's only got some tiny white vase; so boring (they even bother making Gon wonder where the food is, just make it a thing, then!). Sure, it's kind of ridiculous to be eating meat before getting to the exam site, but that's the whole point! It's that sense of wonder and surrealism that makes the Hunter Exam fascinating; people like this arc because of these tiny things that make up a wondrous whole. By the way, Cherry becomes number 78 in this story because Marisa and Reimu are 76 and 77 respectively. Whatever the case, look forward to the next chapter? I somehow didn't make noteworthy dialogue mistakes, so I don't have anything else to add.


	9. Chapter 8

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - Thank you! I honestly always kind of fear people not enjoying chapters that have OCs in them (even if they're necessary since it wouldn't be as interesting if the preliminaries were the same in this particular case) so the relief I get from people saying that about the previous chapters in particular is considerable, to say the least! Regardless, as I re-watched the Hunter Exam arc, I found that it was one of Hunter x Hunter's high points in my opinion (along with the Yorknew arc which is pretty much the best one as far as I'm concerned), and I only hope I can make it similarly interesting! I can pretty much keep watching that arc without getting bored, and the way it sets up the relationship between Gon, Leorio, Kurapika and Killua and their character conflicts is just really neat and gives the series some direction. All of this is achieved through sheer character interaction since a lot of the actual trials don't actually have all that much to them for being simple but that itself is admirable, to be honest. Incidentally, I didn't know who Sam Vimes was and you ended up introducing me to the discworld series with that statement. I tried reading through the first book but I couldn't quite get through it, though it seemed the later ones actually had improved prose-wise so I feel kind of bad I didn't end up all that hooked from the first go. Either way, I appreciated getting the chance to even try it out! Whatever the case, thank you very much for reviewing, as always!  
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Since the last chapter, this story got 6 favorites and 4 followers, to all of which I'm grateful for! Seriously, considering my upload rate, it is pretty amazing I have such consistent views and people are still around? I've been terribly busy as of late, but now I'm hoping I'll actually have more free time so I don't take 20 years writing this huge story. Anyway, I actually merged chapter 8 with the original chapter 9 because I felt like I'd made chapter 8 too short, so you've got double the content. On the other hand, I'll have to write two chapters to make up for the loss of my consistent 7 backlog chapter count, but it'll be alright since they'll get done eventually! If anything, I'm considering writing more than two chapters ahead so I get a more considerable lead on you, but I haven't decided.

Either way, enjoy!

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 **Chapter 8: The First Exam Site of Transient Meetings and Partings  
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Two rookies lined up in front of the elevator, which had long but closed. One of them, fearless and confident, even excited; the other, cautious and pensive, clearly paying mind to her surroundings. Women applicants were already fairly rare in the Hunter Exam, and they looked unique as anyone who would usually get as far as the exam site did. Even then, the cautious one had a single peculiarity that presumably was the reason for her guard to be up: her arm wrapped around a cast, holding her number badge, it was clear she was injured. Despite that, the two seemed far from nervous. Simply passing the preliminaries with an injury was unheard of, but to remain confident regardless of it was especially strange.

However, none of that truthfully mattered to the Rookie Crusher, Tonpa. As far as he was concerned, that confidence was a bonus, as it would become irrecognizable once he made sure to erase all of their chances of passing the exam. The mere thought was enough to bring a smile to his darkened, round features. He prepared his usual greeting: from a bag coloured beige, he grabbed at two bright orange cans, each containing juice mixed with a strong laxative. He was sure the cautious one would hesitate to take it, but the confident one would likely see nothing wrong, so he was sure he could get both to drink the laxative by having one assertively do so and set the example. Then, just as the other years, they would run and cry, their hopes and dreams crushed forever.

Tonpa suppressed a laugh. Even his smile, though crooked with immorality, was being smoothened by a falsely friendly edge, and his beady eyes made an attempt at a down-to-earth presence through a simplistic gaze. With a vacant hand, he helped support his weight as he stood from his seat on the ground before dusting off his blue clothing. The nearby applicants immediately set a suspecting eye on Tonpa, only to smirk knowingly. He was ready to strike, they thought, yet again.

"Ah!" Tonpa stopped in his tracks so as to observe why exactly the confident young woman was in such a way surprised, just in case it was something he could use to his advantage. Her brown, widened eyes proceeded to narrow almost accusingly towards something in front of her, to Tonpa's right. "You!" The young woman ran forward, while her cautious friend took a moment to process the situation with blinking eyes before following suit in confusion.

Tonpa looked to his right in an attempt to predict where the young women were heading before they even reached the specific location. However, to his utter shock, in the precise direction they were dashing towards, a mere wall to the corner opposite of Tonpa's was only a man meant to be feared: Hisoka, the magician. _What? Are they mad...?!_ Naturally, all of the applicants had put a considerable distance between him and themselves so as to avoid conflict, knowing he was a force to be reckoned. With that in mind, Tonpa was not the only one staring incredulously towards the two female rookies, particularly the assertive one dressed in red and white.

 _Still, now this is something,_ Tonpa thought with a grimace, _These two rookies are on their way to self-destruction before I could even crush them._ He stuffed the two cans back in his bag and took slow steps back from the two reckless rookies, aiming to ignore the situation unfolding for his own safety. _Good luck getting past that psychopath alive! You have my condolences!_ Such were his thoughts before he shifted his gaze to the elevator in search for easier prey, though part of him was moderately miffed by the prospect of being unable to orchestrate their downfall. He did not let it show on his now neutral expression, and walked closer to the entrance of the site, away from the two.

Hisoka, on the other hand, had only now opened his eyes ever so slightly to regard the familiar presence with a smile. Reimu, or so he deigned to remember had stopped with an abrupt halt, clumsy and spontaneous in its motions before crudely pointing in his direction, as if indignated by his very existence. Her wide, fierce eyes locked with his in a glare, combined with a distinct lack of fear or caution only served to genuinely brighten the magician's mood, but he kept his features distinctively elegant as he said, "I've been waiting for you." Reimu's eyebrows furrowed, and her grimace deepened. It was a moment of slight confusion, an implicit weakness in her judgment; Hisoka calmly chuckled in light of it. "Just kidding." His previously crossed arms loosened now, and he let himself lean on the wall with a seemingly unfocused, casual gaze matching his conversational mood, which he continued by speaking further: "Even then, you could say that was partially true; I did expect you to come. It just so happens I was going to take the exam myself."

"Wait, is this the guy who told you to take the exam?" another presence next to Reimu interjected, and Hisoka was sorely forced to note her existence. His smile faded for the slightest moment in his own bout of confusion, thinking, _Who is this supposed to be? A friend of Reimu's?_ As far as he had known, Reimu was a lone figure, but he had supposedly been mistaken if the blonde young woman sending him wary glances was any indication. Her conversely careless speech represented her familiarity with Reimu, and she was burdened with a backpack over her shoulders, which housed a shabby-seeming broom to its straps. The pointy hat and general dark clothing only alluded to an identity as mystical as her partner's, but her current appearance held an even more significant truth evidenced by the cast on her right arm.

She was injured. As such, she was a liability to Reimu if she were attempting to protect her. Hisoka looked towards Reimu expecting an answer to the other's question, and saw her frowning as though troubled, but presumably not by her partner instead of Hisoka himself. "The one and only," Reimu stated, "I found him at the 200th floor, so I was sure he could use that foreign power, but from the looks of things, he's taking the exam for some reason." Then, she turned to Hisoka again, and Hisoka allowed his eyebrows to arch in curiosity. "I don't know what your circumstances are, but you weren't trying to trick me, were you?"

"Of course not," Hisoka lightly responded, "I'd never do such a thing to you." The intonation was almost half-heartedly theatrical, meant to be uncovered for its vague untrustworthiness, but his seemingly condescending smirk was as clear as day to the two. They glared his way more intensely than before, subjecting themselves to the taunt as Hisoka continued with a firmer, nonchalant stance: "The hint I gave you was the truth. Though, unfortunately for you, the only way you'll be able to confirm that is by passing the exam yourself." Seeing the other young woman and Reimu tense with thought, Hisoka clashed with that mood by cheerfully smiling, his gaze entirely focused on Reimu. "I'm rooting for you."

Reimu, however, was as if too mindful of her own priorities to consider Hisoka's words and refrained from a response, instead locking eyes with Hisoka; her fists trembled with some frustration, he noted. "Basically, you got nothing useful to tell us about Nen or the exam?" the other one asked in Reimu's stead, worming her way into the conversation between the two and making Hisoka have to shift his attention to her. The young woman appeared similarly displeased by his demeanor, but her frown was more subdued, her disgust hidden with a guarded stance.

"I did tell Reimu I was only going to give her a hint," Hisoka answered neatly and without hesitation, thinking of how troublesome it would be to accommodate for an unwelcome presence. The response should have been enough to nullify any further doubt on his own vote of silence and stop Reimu's partner from prying further, but she instead managed to smile wryly.

"My turn, then," the young woman casually voiced, "Reimu's got a hint, but I don't. Only fair if I do, right?" The offer was simple and straightforward, though her smile seemed to be on the verge of fading with her every word, as if unstable; as if making a gamble of considerable proportions. "One hint each. How's that sound?"

The only visible indication of Hisoka's current pensive state were the few seconds of silence he took to consider her words, and the subtle narrowing of his eyes. "Well..." Hisoka absent-mindedly uttered, only so the silence would be no more and it would seem as though he was actually still thinking. In truth, he had already decided, and he snickered over the sheer simplicity of the young woman's information-gathering tactic. Simple, but a commendable effort in face of the situation. "Sure. I'll make it fair for you with this hint: your Hunter Exam won't end at the final phase. If your goal isn't in sight by then, that could be the reason for it."

"'Your' Hunter Exam, huh..." Reimu muttered, sizing Hisoka up with a cold gaze; cold enough that it exuded neutrality. "Does that mean yours is going to be different somehow?" Even so, the slight doubt carried by the question hinted at some emotion, at the very least, and Hisoka sought to fight fire with fire.

He shrugged, an inconsequential frown adorning his features. "Maybe... But maybe not," he loosely responded, edging his gaze away from Reimu and her partner to briefly check on the surroundings now that he had the chance. Nothing worth fussing over, he noted; it was an unfortunate truth he discerned with a glance.

Meanwhile, Reimu sighed, resigned before sending a glance to Marisa, who appeared similarly disappointed. "What a waste of time," she remarked as she faced Hisoka with crossed arms. "If you know so much, why can't you just tell us all about it and get this over with?"

Hisoka looked back to Reimu then, and immediately retorted as if carefree, "Isn't it more fun to discover everything yourself? Consider it a favor." _We're only just getting started, after all,_ he thought at the same time, his mind wandering back to her previous albeit unfortunately brief shows of power, _I wouldn't want you to slip away so soon._ "It's not like you won't get exactly what you wanted if you don't pry it out of me."

"Can't say he doesn't have a point there," the young woman said, "assuming he's tellin' the truth." She scratched her head, seemingly troubled trying to think of further possibilities to shift the situation to her favor despite the clear otherworldly caliber of Hisoka's mere presence.

"He must be, because that's the one thing keeping me from beating this guy up." Reimu glared Hisoka's way after focusing on her partner's reasoning, unconvinced just as she was. Conversely, Hisoka cheerfully smiled in return, which only served to feed Reimu's irritation in light of the inciden. "That, and the fact that I don't still know if he's actually got any clue on the mastermind or not."

"The mastermind?"

"Want a hint?" the young woman promptly asked the moment she spotted the slightest opening in the confusion Hisoka allowed to surface through his own question, even if he appeared to hold an easy smile.

It had widened then as a reaction to something akin to a repeating joke in that woman's attempt, and simultaneously for its convenience. "Go on, then," he uttered, only to point the young woman's way slowly, with a relaxed arm that truly was expecting no conflict from any suicidal soul. The blonde young woman could not help grimacing from the focus intensified with his pointing, but she at least managed to stop herself from stepping back despite the temptation. "Your hint first..." Hisoka shifted his gaze to Reimu last the same way one would save the tastiest delicacy for the very end, and his eyes lingered with the added excuse of motioning his arm to point her way, as well. "And her hint second."

"My hint?" Reimu blinked in surprise, as if dumbfounded by the prospect of giving hints rather than anything else truthfully her style.

Hisoka nodded. "One hint each, wasn't it?" he retorted, only to shrug casually. "It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"Now we're talkin'," the young woman said in an almost deliberately calm manner, as if to make sure not to overstep any boundaries. She had a smile regardless, and it likely was genuine in some fronts with the notion of creating a suitably vague sentence constituting a hint, but it was just as clear that she was holding back both negativity and positivity alike. "My hint's this: mastermind's the bad guy. What do people do to bad guys on the loose?"

"They hunt them down," Hisoka said, "no?"

"Not like we'd answer your questions," she countered with a glance Reimu's way, watching as she nodded along in agreement. "Ya reap what ya sow."

"How strict..." _For dead weight,_ so Hisoka thought behind a disingenuous smile, though he lingered no more on the cast defining the young woman's worth to prioritize infinitely more interesting matters, such as Reimu's own attempt at a hint.

"It's what you get for being troublesome to deal with," Reimu interjected at first, only to absent-mindedly look to the side as she pondered. "Anyway, I'm supposed to give a hint or whatever, right? Let's see..." She hummed pensively, gazing now to the ground, and after a long few seconds, she locked eyes with Hisoka to assert herself with the following hint: "Not all boundaries should be crossed, but they crossed the line."

A surprisingly vague statement coming from such an impulsive figure, but it only heightened the amusement to be faced with a challenge, even if intellectual. If anything, he noted, the young woman's own hint was much more straightforward in nature, while Reimu's was based on certain keywords. _Boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, hm...?_ For all intents and purposes, Reimu's naively intense gaze his way should have presented more of her intentions than otherwise, but it was as perfectly ambiguous as the hint itself; almost as if as a sort of accidental form of deceit. _That might as well be the water to my oil, but it's not like we're so different after all, are we?_ Hisoka lowly chuckled processing the contrasts between Reimu and her partner, and met Reimu's gaze in kind. "Now, this certainly is enigmatic," Hisoka commented. "In other words, this mastermind of yours broke some kind of taboo, and you came to hunt them down for their crimes?"

"... You could say that."

"Well, if you think they could be a Hunter, you're on the right track," Hisoka said in light of Reimu's lack of clarification on the matter, shifting the topic ever so slightly in its direction, "The only thing you'd need right now is to keep up and pass, but I'm sure you can do that."

"Of course I can," Reimu said with a prideful upright stance for a moment, but the surroundings had caught her eye, warranting a frown from her. "But speaking of, when is this exam thing starting?" She gave the underground location a quick glance through, noting only one person entering from the elevator as of now. "We've been talking for a while and nothing's happened yet."

"Don't you remember the flier?" the young woman interjected. "Exam's in three days. We arrived way early."

Reimu's eyes widened in pure shock from the revelation that was more than obvious to her partner, reflexively exclaiming, "No way!" Her gaze was entirely focused on the young woman, the source of the helpless piece of information, and her frown and lightly trembling self marked the first time Reimu had ever so much as appeared distressed. "Are we supposed to stay here for three whole days, then? What about food? This place isn't comfortable at all to sleep on, either." And it was over daily necessities, of all things.

"You can come and go after you receive the number tag," Hisoka explained, garnering the attention of the two back with considerable and desired effectiveness, "as long as you aren't late for the exam's start." He shrugged due to the uninteresting nature of the facts, but was otherwise tempted to chuckle in amusement from the expressions of innocent anticipation in regards to his newly-discovered usefulness; it truly only solidified his preference for the simple-minded ones. "You'll be urged to hide the tag when you leave, if anything."

"Oh, that's convenient," the young woman remarked as she found her gaze naturally gravitating towards the elevator. "Almost thought I wouldn't get to sightsee over here, but looks like I have three whole days for it." Then, she looked back at Reimu with an entirely content smile, equally the first of its kind when it came to her. "Hey, Reimu, you're not gonna stay here the whole time, are ya? How about you join me now?"

Reimu's chin rested over her right hand as she thought over Marisa's offer, only to shake her head. "It does sound better than staying here, but I'd rather check on the shrine if I've got the free time for it. I want to see how everything's doing over there before I decide to move on." The young woman found herself blinking in confusion in reaction to the statement, portraying part of Hisoka's perspective on her words. However, seeing Reimu wave her partner's direction as a goodbye, Hisoka's expression finally showed traces of his doubts, and his eyebrows arched slightly. "So, I suppose I'll see you when the exam starts."

"Wait, though, you're leavin' right now?!" The young woman glanced Hisoka's way apprehensively as she exclaimed that with a particularly loud voice, loud enough that more applicants were keeping an eye on the situation. As such, more applicants were also witnessing Reimu's glowing back along with Hisoka, who was completely entranced by the sudden foreign presence he could feel oozing from her.

"Of course I am," Reimu immediately responded, leaving her partner with little room for protests. "I'd much rather sleep at home than renting a place in some city I don't know. But since you're so interested in looking around, I'm sure you'd be fine with staying here so we can both guarantee our return to the exam site." The outline of the door opened behind Reimu, now facing her back rather than the opposite direction. "I'm counting on you, Marisa! You'd better not leave for Gensokyo!"

"No, Reimu, you idiot, how am I gonna **—**!" By the time the young woman, Marisa, was in the middle of voicing that, Reimu was already sinking into the mysterious door, which closed before fading out of existence, as if it were never there to begin with. Marisa groaned as her vacant hand found its way to her face. "Great," she dryly remarked in a low voice, "I'm stuck with the blood smell guy."

Strange remarks he hardly cared to understand aside, Hisoka could not help but shift his gaze to the remaining association with Reimu in his proximity and try to gauge her reaction, which was poor not out of lack of familiarity. No, it was only obvious Marisa knew exactly of that Nen Hisoka had witnessed from Reimu's back, clearly apart from her own. _It can't be hers, though,_ Hisoka thought, _because she would have been able to force Reimu to stay otherwise._ If she did not in spite of her clear opposition, it was only logical to conclude the door contraption was someone else's Nen, hidden enough to be out of Hisoka's notice unless activated. _Such a mystery these two are..._

The increasing tension reflected beyond even Hisoka's intense gaze on her finally had Marisa account for his presence again, and she immediately took a step back for the sake of her own safety after removing her hand from her face. She was eyeing Hisoka awkwardly, as if unsure of what to even expect: the fact that the stance strayed from fear branded her caution somewhat abnormal, but he did expect her to act as though he were a potential threat. "So..." Marisa uttered to put an end to the silence, possibly to find a way to escape. "I know that looked weird and all, but that's just how it is. You know. When it comes to getting back home."

"Are you saying that's the conventional method of returning home for you?" Hisoka questioned in quick succession to the end of her clumsily-worded explanation like a predator cornering prey, watching Marisa grimace in her awareness of his keen interest in the situation. "That sounds like a rather unique place to live in. Would you mind telling me more about it, or are we still working on a hint by hint basis?" His back distanced itself from the wall to allow Hisoka to step forward and close the distance between himself and Marisa as he locked eyes with her almost threateningly. "Because, admittedly enough, I'm getting bored of hints at this point."

He was smirking when he said that, genuinely amused over whatever decision Marisa could come to with his implicit intimidation tactic, but she gulped as her only show of fear before trying to return his confidence with a smile. "Well, tell ya what? We can drop the hints and have a little talk about Gensokyo..." She then paused to think, glancing towards the elevator once. "But in return, how about you reccommend me some spots I could go visit in this city? I don't know if you're actually from these parts, but you know better about these places than I do for sure."

"... Now that you mention it," Hisoka calmly, though almost absent-mindedly uttered, "you did say you planned on sightseeing." The statement was part of his own train of thought, and it slipped casually from his mind as he wondered about the silly nature of Marisa's priorities.

"It's the whole reason I'm here," Marisa promptly said and attempted not to waver in face of Hisoka, hoping to prove that she was far from deceiving him. "You could even say I'm a tourist, while Reimu's on the job."

"So, you're taking the Hunter Exam for your own entertainment?"

"Pretty much," Marisa responded. "So, how about it? You get to know what you wanna know and I get to enjoy my vacation. Sounds like a win-win situation to me."

"... And if I refuse?"

Marisa scowled in light of the contrarian offer, glaring at a careless-seeming Hisoka while her hand was reaching slightly closer to her backpack as if in case of a concrete threat. "If you refuse, I won't tell you a thing," Marisa asserted, "As easy as that. I might not be in top shape to face you off, but I'm confident enough in my speed. Try to get to me, and I'll just escape until Reimu comes back."

Additionally, he noted, Marisa's hand was trembling in the background of her confident front, but her gestures did imply she had some sort of trick she could use in case of refusal. Even as a bluff, it was a more than satisfactory reaction in Hisoka's standards, and he could not help snickering in light of her unexpectedly serviceable potential, for her physical downsides. "Alright, then," he said. "I'll go along with your idea. I don't have much to do in here, anyway."

"Well, if it's a humid cave like this, I guess you'd even take a conversation to kill ti **—** "

"I presume we'll be heading out tomorrow morning? Unless you'd prefer a night outing, instead," Hisoka uttered with narrowed eyes, watching Marisa blink cluelessly with a grimace for all it was worth. "I certainly wouldn't mind that, either."

Marisa was entirely motionless for an entire quarter of a minute, but her apathetic, seemingly lifeless expression and half-lidded eyes only indicated she was not quite thinking deeply as much as she could not even connect the dots that would lead Hisoka to his own offer. "Huh...?" was her only coherent verbal reaction to the situation, but the way she was looking beyond Hisoka rather than towards him continued to illustrate her actions as almost instinctive.

It was just about the desired effect for Hisoka, who allowed himself a chuckle before retreating to the wall. "Well, I'll be looking forward to it," Hisoka said, "I've got _a lot_ to ask you now that Reimu is gone." Then, as if the conversation had reached its end in his mind, Hisoka sat against the wall, his focus now somewhere else; from behind, he took a box containing a deck of cards. Opening the box, his face was almost neutral as he removed the deck from it and began to shuffle the cards miscellanously.

On the other hand, Marisa was blankly staring his way, now able to ponder on the situation after finding that Hisoka was already acting as though there was nothing more to discuss. _This guy..._ Finally, as if facing the biggest threat of her life, Marisa stepped back with considerable force as she watched Hisoka seemingly playing around with cards, her eyes entirely wide with awe and bitter resentment. _Did he just hijack my vacation...?!_

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The Hakurei Shrine, with Autumn leaves covering the ground as far as the eye could see, seemed to be exactly as Reimu had left it.

Simply eyeing the modest building relaxed Reimu, who had admittedly missed her home. She smiled calmly as she surveyed her surroundings, supposedly in case of an intruder or something out-of-place, but she was truthfully taking in the familiar sights, far different from the world she had been staying at for so long; almost a month. "This place could definitely use some sweeping..." Reimu muttered before breathing out in a tired fashion, feeling weighed down by a sudden sense of fatigue. The late afternoon sky, darkened by the lacking Sun, only served to reinforce that sensation, as Reimu saw a need to simply lie down on her futon and take a break.

Had she not gotten the chance to do it, however, she never would have; Reimu's priority would always be the incident. She only took note of her own lack of energy now that she was able to rest, and that, to Reimu, was nothing strange. In fact, it was simply dismissed as convenient. While Reimu almost felt like taking up a broom and remove the leaves from at least the front of the shrine grounds, she shrugged, choosing instead to enter her home. Then, as she stepped towards the door, she found it opened on its own, revealing someone exiting from within. For a brief second, Reimu tensed, scowling at the intruder, only to note that the girl who had just left her own home was more than familiar. "Ms. Reimu...?!" Reddened, almost pink hair swayed with the younger girl's jump back, and her eyes, similarly colored, were wide with shock. Reimu herself was blinking in confusion at the reaction, while the girl was smiling almost excitedly after processing the encounter. "It's so good to see you! It's been a while since you've been to the shrine, so I was starting to get worried, but it seems like there was no need. I shouldn't have expected any less from you!"

"Uh..." Reimu paused in a bout of rare uncertainty while faced with the brightness of that smile, but she somehow managed to utter, "Kosuzu? What are you doing here?"

The straightforward question brought said brighteness to a halt as Kosuzu froze in place with a slight distortion of that smile on her features. "Oh, w-well... How do I put this..." She glanced to her left and to her right as if in search for something, only for her gaze to linger on her hands. They were trembling in clear apprehension, and the moment Reimu's eyebrows were furrowing as a mix of concern and confusion surged in her, Kosuzu perked her head up to lock eyes with Reimu while frowning. "There are... Some books you rented that are way past the deadline, and your outing to solve the incident hasn't allowed you to return them! It's only natural I'd go retrieve them myself!"

Reimu flinched immediately, ambushed by an enemy known as 'The Fine' which threw her mind asunder with recollections of the books in question. "S-seriously?!" However, the more she would stare at Kosuzu, whose pursed lips indicated nothing but apparent displeasure, the more she would be inclined to search for the source of the attack to her person. "Wait..." she muttered when her gaze was lowered yet again to Kosuzu's arms. "But you aren't bringing any books with you."

In order to hide her incessantly pounding heart and spinning mind from Reimu's first and legitimate doubt, Kosuzu's frown contorted to a grimace as she countered, "I haven't finished talking, have I now?" It was her best attempt at emulating a genuinely irritated deameanor, even if her furrowed eyebrows twitched unnaturally. Regardless, Reimu did happen to be rendered silent, expecting an explanation, so Kosuzu was quick to continue: "I'd actually tried to go here in the morning to get the books, but since you were out, I decided to return by the afternoon to warn you thinking you'd be there by then. You weren't, though, so I was just about ready to give up until you appeared. Oh, and if you're wondering about the fine, I'm only forgiving you because you were distracted with the incident, alright?" Kosuzu mustered an apologetic smile, and its genuine edge was derived from the pre-existing guilt rather than the veracity of her words, especially when she knew that sentence could definitely pacify Reimu's doubts.

"I-Is that so?" As expected, Reimu was already smiling as well, even if weakly simply from being reminded of the notion of payment. "I suppose I really owe you my thanks this time around." Then, in looking to the side and noting the sky's dark color, Reimu thinly frowned yet again, and said, "Anyway, it's also good that I ended up returning, since I wouldn't want you to keep trying to go here. It's dangerous right now, you know?"

"Dangerous?" Kosuzu questioned in true confusion. "How so?"

"Don't you know about the rumors? That weird group does exist, for your information."

"I mean, _everybody_ knows they exist by now," Kosuzu said, causing Reimu to scratch her head awkwardly as she remembered her own ignorance. "But they only go after youkai, don't they? It's not like I'd be in danger or anything."

"That's what it looks like at first, but even Marisa got her arm broken fighting one of them," Reimu warned with her eyes finally locked onto Kosuzu so as to intensify the assertion. "So you should be careful anyway."

"W-wait, Ms. Marisa got her arm broken while fighting a Nen-user?!" Kosuzu incredulously questioned while practically jumping from the shock. "Is she okay?!"

"She let her guard down and had to retreat before he could make her any worse for wear," Reimu explained, glancing towards the shrine as she remembered Marisa's weakened voice trying to elaborate on her situation through the pain of her injury. She could not help grimace then, especially considering Marisa's broken arm had yet to heal. That very moment was noted by Kosuzu with risen eyebrows, and Reimu, finding that she was silent for perhaps a little too long, spoke again: "Well, she's recovering now, but she could have been in really big trouble if she hadn't managed to escape."

"I never imagined Ms. Marisa would get injured to such a degree in an incident..." Kosuzu muttered, her voice airy with raw awe.

"We can get beaten up here and there, but something like that hasn't happened before, no," Reimu said, "That's just how much of a special case this incident is."

"But wait, didn't you beat the mastermind already? I heard you were only returning to the shrine after solving the incident..."

"If I could find that pesky mastermind, I'd have beaten them ten times over already! What sucks is that I don't have a single solid lead on where they are! I can't even tell if I'm making progress right now!" Sensing that she had hit a nerve, Kosuzu simply chuckled nervously and softly, unsure of how to even pacify someone such as Reimu. Regardless, Reimu herself could see she was not seeming reliable to Kosuzu in turn, and sighed as though weary. "I can only get a move on with finding information on them three days from now, so I came to the shrine to see how everything is doing in Gensokyo. You haven't heard of anything else about the Nen-user group so far, have you?"

Kosuzu was forced to pause in order to think, but each second felt like a minute when she thought back to all of her knowledge. "No," she ultimately answered with downcast eyes, "not a thing as far as I know." She tried to smile after swallowing her guilt whole with a gulp, and endeavored to change the subject: "Speaking of, what exactly is that badge over your clothing?"

Reimu looked down at herself and blinked upon reminding herself of the tag's existence. "Oh, this?" Her fingers brushed through it lightly, but its texture ilicited no emotion to Reimu, who looked up at Kosuzu with a nonchalant frown. "It's just some weird thing I got handed over for this exam I'm doing."

"An exam?" Kosuzu questioned, "Weren't you solving the incident?"

"I'm trying to get leads, and it somehow led me to the exam I'm taking," Reimu responded, only to scowl. She crossed her arms and briefly closed her eyes, which conveyed only gloom when they met with Kosuzu's. "It's complicated and troublesome, so I'd really rather not get reminded of it while I'm here, to be honest."

"Well, if you say so..." Kosuzu said, though her frown indicated she was not quite satisfied with that conclusion. "Anyway, I've already got you up to speed and you clearly must be tired, so I'll be leaving now." Kosuzu then passed Reimu by in a quick stride, and Reimu turned to see Kosuzu waving in her direction with a strained smile. "Good luck with the incident, Ms. Reimu! Tell Ms. Marisa I hope she gets well soon!"

"I will!" Reimu waved back and smiled genuinely, watching as Kosuzu turned around to leave the Hakurei Shrine grounds. "Be careful out there!" Unbeknownst to Reimu, Kosuzu frowned solemnly, looking back on her conversation with Reimu; at the information she had willfully ommitted from her.

Meanwhile, as Reimu entered the shrine, her home, and closed the door behind her, she thought of Marisa, whose recklessness was knowing no bounds this time around. Rather than resting at home, she had decided to accompany Reimu, and while that was convenient for Reimu when it came to coming to Gensokyo, she found herself mulling over hypothetical scenarios: what if Marisa were to get into danger, far away from Reimu? What if saving Marisa would waste time necessary to find and defeat the mastermind? Reimu shook her head, dismissing the possibilities; pondering on them was a useless effort, and Reimu was tired already.

Figuring Marisa was probably alright at the moment, Reimu simply headed for her room, planning to sleep in early and wash away both her fatigue and homesickness.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Marisa did not consider herself 'alright'. The number of applicants present was nearing a hundred, and there were two people among them that Marisa could recognize, but seeing as the two had kept their distance and were looking around warily, Marisa knew they would not welcome her presence even if she attempted to talk to them. Naturally, the applicants that did not know her were also cautious of her, exuding animosity before she could even approach them.

Her eyes drifted to the strange man Reimu had met in Heavens Arena. Seemingly absorbed in his own leisurely activity, he appeared to be constructing a massive pyramid out of a deck of cards, which stood in front of him as an incomplete structure. The fact that he had to resort to something so simple was only indicative of the dull nature of waiting in the damp cavernous area in Marisa's perspective, but on the other hand, she had admittedly never conceived the possibility. Curious about the art of constructing towers with cards and similarly bored out of her mind, her dislike for the strange man was entirely erased as she approached him from the side. _Not like he'd try anything when he's got to go through with the exam, right?_

"Hey..." Marisa paused after calling out to the man, realizing she did not know his name, and almost hesitated in pointing in his direction despite having already come as far as trying to talk to him to begin with. "Uh, you." The lacking eloquence in her earnest attempt soured her mood further, and the risk perceivable from the killing intent the man irradiated from as further back as when she first saw him did not help matters in allowing her to vent her anger. "Seriously, who are you again?" she ultimately asked with a pointed glare his way, specifically due to his equally unwelcoming presence and her memories of the troublesome conversation she had with him previously. Somehow, she noted, he was still the least guarded of the applicants in the area. _If he doesn't ignore me, at least._

Since the man's gaze did not leave the structured mound of cards, she truthfully could not know if he had even listened to her at all. His expression was apathetic, his posture while sat on the ground relaxed to the point it was clear he was uncaring of the surroundings; it continued to bring doubt to a grimacing Marisa with the passing seconds. There was a card on his hand, but it was stopped perfectly near the tower-to-be the moment Marisa had approached, so she could not help but blink in surprise when he finally showed signs of life by opening his mouth to speak. "As far as I know," he calmly uttered as if in no rush to gain a response, "It's not polite to ask for someone's name when you haven't given yours."

Regardless, seeing the man talk back to her was already bewildering enough on its own in contrast to her low expectations, especially since he had been silent for so long; Marisa herself took a moment to consider what to say next in light of the surprise. _Guess there are potential serial killers weird enough to care about good manners._ "Well, fair enough," was Marisa's response then, even if awkwardly put as she considered her own introduction. She would have thought to smile, but she was stopped by the sight of the man's reccurring apathy. "I'm Marisa the magician. Nice to meet you, I guess." She offered a quick wave of her vacant hand, which twitched momentarily when Marisa spotted the man slowly turning his head to face the side.

His eyes were directed upwards to meet with Marisa's, and his eyebrows had risen from sheer doubt, while Marisa blinked unceremoniously, unsure of what to even expect. "'The magician', is it?" he questioned to himself, if only to confirm the combination of sounds that made up Marisa's title. "Does that mean you can do magic tricks?"

"Magic tricks? The magic I do is real!" Marisa proudly retorted with a smile that finally surfaced. "It's way past tricks!"

The man's eyes narrowed notably after Marisa had proclaimed her opinion so ardently, but the positivity healing her bad mood had blinded her from the change. "You say that as if there were any difference," he casually remarked, and shrugged as if the matter were only obvious. The condescending edge did not go unnoticed entirely by Marisa, but the affirmation itself was enough to catch her interest more as she tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. "People call them magic tricks because they seem just as magical as any other phenomenon."

"At first sight, at least," Marisa retorted even as she continued to think of the meaning behind the man's claim, "but the real thing's just make-believe, in the end. It's not usin' actual magical power." That moment of thought warranted an unfocused gaze from Marisa, and she wondered if the man just did not know of the nature of magic to begin with until she felt a sudden breeze pass her by.

"... Shall we see which one is real, then?" That proposition combined with the sudden sensation snapped Marisa out of her thoughts, and her eyes immediately widened in shock by the sight of a neat vertical row of cards flying in her direction. "Your magic versus mine." Their speed was almost unfathomable, and Marisa was forced to jump aside out of pure instinct before ducking for another row. "Just which will win, in the end?" Her hair would sway with every brisk movement, and Marisa had simultaneously noticed her braid coming loose from the lack of a ribbon assuring its shape. She could not afford the time to look for it on the ground, and the fact that she was certain she even heard the scream of a man behind her solidified the assertion.

She locked eyes with the man instead, and her hand was already reaching out for her weapon. "The hell?! I didn't come here for a fight!" Marisa protested and skirted around the last gathering of flying cards in quick succession, only to see they were the precise amount he had used to build the tower which was no more now. While dodging was not especially difficult for Marisa, she feared whatever other moves he would have up his sleeve, so she was still unable to look away from him: he remained seated leaning on the wall, as if he himself had barely moved, amazingly enough.

"Incidentally, I'm also called Hisoka the magician," the man, Hisoka, said in a carefree manner in contrast to the clear killing intent he had portrayed only seconds ago. "Nice to meet you as well, Marisa."

"It's not so nice meeting somebody when they're tryin' to attack me with a buncha cards!" Marisa promptly countered in light of the irritation welling up inside of her, only intensified by Hisoka's visibly sly smirk and the lacking traces of Nen in his stance, as if he was somehow able to completely mask his involvement with the attack and was aware of that fact. "What kinda magic is that supposed to be, anyway?!"

"Who knows?" Hisoka easily responded, "Why don't you check behind your left ear and find out?"

"Huh? How's that even **—** " Despite her own doubt and anger, Marisa had reached out for her ear with her only hand, and it twitched in pure surprise feeling a foreign texture lodged in between her hair a behind her ear, suspiciously so. She removed it, revealing a single card: a seven of clubs, which Marisa stared at with considerable confusion before looking towards Hisoka. "How'd you...?" She then glanced to her undone braid, and frowned bitterly. _If this is what cut my hair, it should've been able to keep flyin' by. Besides, the card would've had to cut way more to reach my ear,_ Marisa thought while looking back to the card, and blinking upon finding the slightests traces of fresh red on the white edges.

"You can take that one," Hisoka said, "Consider it a prize for surviving."

"So you were tryin' to kill me for real?!" Marisa shouted as she touched behind her ear yet again and looked through her hand meticulously, but there was no wound to speak of that would cause the card to hold blood recent enough to smudge over her touch and stain her fingers. Her mind shifted its focus to one unresolved matter, and she briefly glanced back to confirm where the cards had landed. All applicants had disappeared from that area, shockingly enough, with one exception: a fallen man in blue surrounded by cards that appeared to have pierced through the stone walls of the cave; his bloodied clothing and motionless body were mark of his death. _Would that've been me if I weren't fast enough?_

"I thought you didn't think magic tricks were real." Marisa was compelled to look straight towards Hisoka again, but she was unable to suppress the cold hint in her gaze simply recalling the aftermath of collateral damage in the form of someone's life. Hisoka, on the other hand, was keeping the same inconsequential, knowing smile that Marisa was starting to see nothing but disapproval for.

"They're real, just not magic," Marisa asserted, "And that was way more than just a magic trick." _Not that I know how he did it,_ she thought with narrowed eyes, gripping the card tighter in her hand. _I didn't sense Nen at all, and I don't have a clue about what else people use around here. In that sense, it's sure illusionist-like._

"You're still not convinced? I've got more where that came from." Hisoka revealed three cards with a flourish from his pale hand, and Marisa was certain he did not have the time to take them without being noticed. However, there were no other cards on the ground, so he would have had no choice but to retrieve them from his person. Marisa blinked incredulously, yet unable to understand the nature of his magic fully.

Regardless, she shook her head. "Pretty sure I've seen enough by now," she awkwardly stated as she ducked for her ribbon on the ground and grabbed it alongside the card in her grasp. "Besides, that was plain magic right now, wasn't it? How's it just a magic trick?"

"I never said it was _just_ a magic trick."

"Then, in the end, were you just sayin' that any magic's some kinda trick as long as it's got a way it works and it impresses people?" _Did I almost die just for that?_ Now that was the main question in Marisa's mind, but its lack of a clear, visible response would have it overshadowed by the concept of magic presented by Hisoka regardless.

"You can interpret it however you want," Hisoka said, "I was just starting off our duel."

Despite his words, Hisoka did not seem intent on moving further, though Marisa's eyes were sharp and alert to any sudden attack like the one she had experienced within the same hour. She peered into his gaze, trying to understand if he was being vague so as to hide his agreement or truly being so careless, but she could not quite tell and could not help tiring herself of the tension she had piled up from the effort. "You know," Marisa uttered wearily, "I'd be seein' ya in a better light if you tried proving that to me without the threat to my life. Then again, I guess you don't care since you're still flashing those cards at me."

"Aren't you going to retaliate? You'll lose at this rate," Hisoka said as he fiddled with the cards on his hand in a seemingly absent-minded fashion, his gaze unfocused.

Marisa knew better than to underestimate him for his apparent stance, and scowled before dismissively shooting back, "As if I'd go prolonging a death match. It's not my style, that's for sure. If you're ever seein' my magic, it's whenever I feel like showin' off."

"Are you admitting your loss? Such a pity," Hisoka remarked before looking back to Marisa, peering into her momentarily resolute eyes. She had been firm in her position unlike the first time she was speaking to him, not daring to take a step back. However, contrasting with Marisa's plans, the assertive approach appeared to simply catch Hisoka's attention further, and he smiled loosely. "I was expecting something out of you, for once."

"What's that even _mean_ **—** "

"You've got good reflexes," he said, "but you could use other friends."

"Huh?"

"Birds of a feather flock together, as they say," Hisoka explained with his gaze wandering about the area, as if he were seeing through the true surroundings and reminiscing. Marisa's frown deepened by the prospect, especially in light of the ill-natured smirk Hisoka was wearing in regards to his thoughts. "Reimu practically overshadows you in every way, so no one takes you as seriously. With an injury like that, it's even worse."

Then, Marisa tensed once more, now from the unexpected blow to her ego. Her hand twitched, holding back the urge to act as freely as she wished she could with a serial killer anticipated by divination, and she felt the card crumple lightly under that grip. "Hey, it's just lookin' like that now 'cause of the broken arm, but I'm considered just as good as Reimu back home."

"Really, now? You must not have a good eye," Hisoka remarked. "There's a world of a difference in talent between you two as far as I can see."

"And bridgin' that gap's a talent of its own," Marisa retorted, "Which is exactly what I did. You can't have a good eye either if you don't notice that. I'm not calling myself an ordinary magician for nothing."

"Wasn't it because you couldn't bridge the gap that you became one, instead?" Marisa's eyebrows furrowed in pure confusion, perhaps even in anger as she processed the conclusion from Hisoka and the calm chuckle that had followed it, as if Hisoka were relishing in that immediate negative reaction. "You're not quite cut out for it, are you? Though, I guess it does take talent to be able to get this far without favoring your own strengths."

"What do you know about me, anyway?" she voiced in her own defense, "We just met today."

Hisoka briefly closed his eyes, as if entirely unafraid of a threat. Marisa would have assumed he started to ponder on his own, but he took the liberty to comment instead, "You're so easy to read. Did you know that?" The soft intonation indicated almost a sort of twisted contentedness that Marisa preferred not understanding, even if it seemed obvious to her that it was simply his amusement at her expense, insultingly enough.

"I didn't even take up magic because of Reimu, either," Marisa argued. "You sure you got good people reading skills there?"

"And who said we were talking about the same kind of magician?"

"What _are_ we even talking about in the first place?"

"You were the one who came here," Hisoka said as he locked eyes with Marisa once again, "while I was minding my business. Shouldn't you be the one to tell me that?"

"Well, I showed up 'cause I wanted in on the tower building thing," Marisa said, "But then you derailed everything with the whole tryin' to kill me for saying stuff about your magic part."

She then brandished the card in her hand as proof of her troubles, and Hisoka eyed it only briefly before setting on asking, "So you weren't going me to invite me right now?"

"Where?"

"To the night date, that is."

 **"No chance,"** Marisa asserted with such speed and intensity she was sure she would not be able to mimic the very moment so soon in any other situation, but it was only justified in face of the unsettling, cheerful smile adorning Hisoka's features that was more than aiding in the disgust Marisa was feeling toward his implications. Even so, she deigned to add: "That's not what _I_ agreed on, for one."

"Consider me disappointed again, then," so he said, but the casual smile on his face only proved otherwise. "Though, I don't mind compromising for the morning outing."

"I just wanted some cards, ya know?" Marisa uttered, if only in a desperate attempt to change the topic. "I got one from you already, so how about you **—** " She rose her hand to show said card, but her ribbon was the only object attached to it now that she was eyeing it properly, forcing her to interrupt her words from the incredulity. "Where the...?!"

"Oh, dear," Hisoka interjected, "It seems the card has disappeared from your hand and returned to me mysteriously." Marisa's eye twitched as she shifted her gaze to him, watching as he snickered in face of her supposed ignorance. On his hand along with the others he had brandished previously was that seven of cups as though it had never been with Marisa to begin with; the included blood seen from afar only proved he held the real one, much to Marisa's frustration. "No smokes or mirrors here. You could even say it had a will of its own."

"Now you're just tryin' to piss me off," Marisa stated. _Or maybe he was trying from the beginning, but it sure doesn't change anything._

"You should find something else to entertain yourself with," Hisoka said, "I don't plan on lending these cards to you." The few he did hold disappeared from his grasp as if to impose the point further, but Marisa could not bring herself to show surprise after so many times of witnessing the mysterious powers at work with Hisoka.

"Not even the prize one, huh? You swindler," Marisa snidely muttered with a glance to the side. She pocketed her ribbon, emptying her hands, blankly thinking, _Wouldn't want this guy stealin' even that from me, that's for sure._

"It's not like you'd manage to do anything with them even if I gave them to you," Hisoka said, "considering that arm of yours."

When he pointed to Marisa's right arm, she covered it with her other one. "You won't know for sure 'til I try!" she exclaimed with unfounded confidence, birthed only because she had no desire to submit to Hisoka's logic if she could help it.

Hisoka, meanwhile, lowered his hand, only to shrug. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not so curious about that," he said, "Now, your business here is done, isn't it? You'd best go your merry way."

Marisa tensed, grasping the sleeve of her right arm with considerable force as she coldly eyed Hisoka. "Or what?" She wryly smiled, as if part of her did feel like laughing in face of Hisoka's indirect intimidation. "You'll kill me?"

She took a step back then, if only due to the gaze colder than even her own laying on her threateningly, hidden by an assured smirk. "Hasty, aren't we?" Hisoka remarked condescendingly, his voice needlessly smooth so as to practically simplify every syllable of that nonchalant observation. Were she in Gensokyo, Marisa would know better than not to immediately engage in battle and settle matters, but she could not reach for her weapon now hoping to win, and the distance she had between it and her hand were as if suppressing her temptation to shoot through him regardless. "Why don't you try saying that again when you recover your arm? You might just catch my attention then."

After simply glaring Hisoka's way for a moment, Marisa grimaced. "I will, don't you worry," she countered with nothing but venom in her voice, covered by sheer bravado. _If Reimu doesn't end up doing it for me, I'll definitely beat this guy eventually._ "And you'll eat your words when I make it! The building the tower part, that is!" Then, she departed with a huff, without looking back at Hisoka. As far as she was concerned, she could at least afford the freedom of having priorities beyond Hisoka's own plans, which she knew she could not escape from unless she wanted to threaten Reimu's progress. It was not something she wanted to think about, truthfully, but it was a much better choice than the alternative.

Despite herself, Marisa could not help but sneak a glance towards the horizon beyond Hisoka's position, particularly to the wall the former applicant lay fallen. The blood and the position were intact to an eerie degree, but strangely enough, all of the cards that had been thrown to the wall and the corpse were missing. Marisa shook her head, dismissing the train of thought. _No point in tryin' to wrap my head around something I can't understand,_ she thought as she approached the elevator instead, heading for the path of better, more positive thoughts. _More importantly, I hadn't had anything to eat in hours. Reimu left me all this cash, so I better take advantage of it and get something good._

 _It's pretty much the only way I'm ever getting over Hisoka hijacking my vacation, really._

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The morning sunlight cast on the shrine grounds was enough to warrant a smile out of Reimu, who had been sweeping them hours ago and continued to do so now. Since she had slept in very early, she had woken up just as early, at a time the sky was still dark. Regardless, bursting with energy, Reimu had decided to take advantage of her time to finally get the Autumn leaves out of the shrine, at least for now. Seeing as barely any leaves were in sight, Reimu was just about done with the task. She stretched her arms after leaving the broom leaning on a tree, only to spot a pink figure from the corner of her eye. Reimu walked for the shrine's entrance, where the flying person had landed. Once she was close enough to that area, Reimu could tell she was before Kasen, who frowned coldly as she surveyed the surroundings. "Kasen?" Reimu called out with pure curiosity laced in her voice as she positioned herself to Kasen's side with furrowed eyebrows.

Kasen's eyes widened in surprise as she stepped back from Reimu, though she was somehow able to manage a smile. "Oh, Reimu! What a surprise," Kasen remarked, and her expression softened in a shade of relief, much to Reimu's confusion. "Did you finally take the mastermind down? You certainly took longer than usual. The shrine has been empty for weeks."

Reimu, on the other hand, crossed her arms and grimaced, feeling as though underestimated despite the assumption. "I know that much, but it's not like I could help it," she said, "I had to search for the mastermind. I'm still looking for them, by the way. This incident is far from over."

"You still haven't found them?" Kasen questioned in light disbelief as she neared her bandaged hand to the edge of her face. "That's rare. You usually find your way to the culprit so fast."

"My intuition's kind of broken this time around when it comes to the mastermind," Reimu explained with a shrug, "I don't know why, but I just can't pinpoint where they could be; it's like they could be anywhere. I don't have any leads on them, either."

"I see..." Kasen pensively muttered, only for her wandering eyes to settle on Reimu's red sleeveless shirt. "By the way, what's that number on your chest?" She pointed to it awkwardly and tilted her head to the side, while Reimu looked down as if for a threat. "Does it have anything to do with the incident?"

However, noting the tag yet again, she gave Kasen a dry look before uttering, "Something along those lines. Though, it's just some tag, so it's nothing dangerous. I only still have it on because I didn't feel like taking it off."

Despite the genuine weariness of Reimu and lacking caution, Kasen's gaze lingered on the tag spelling out the number 77, as if there were others before Reimu. "Well, if you say so," she said after shifting her gaze back to Reimu's bitter frown. "It's at least good that you're taking a break from the incident to tend to your shrine. If you can't make progress, you might as well focus on what you can do, instead." Kasen took a few seconds to look through the tended grounds, and closed her eyes to feel the Winter wind course by as peacefully as the silent shrine.

"I have plans for the incident, so I'm not aimless or anything like that," Reimu responded with a dismissive wave of her hand, swatting away the notion of not progressing before placing said hand on her hip. "I'm just taking a break right now because I have the free time for it."

"Even then, it was a good idea coming from you," Kasen said, "I was worried you were overdoing it with this incident since you weren't coming back to the shrine at all, but it looks like you were just fine." However, in a sudden fashion as far as Reimu could see, Kasen frowned as she lightly grasped the chest area of her clothing with her hand. "By the way, have you seen Marisa? No matter when I come over to visit her, she's not home. She's injured, so why would she be out and about right now? Did your recklessness rub off on her?"

"Hey, I'm not that reckless," Reimu retorted, only to be faced with a blank gaze from an unconvinced Kasen. She tried responding to it in kind, but its intensity was such she could not help averting her gaze. "Anyway, I do know where she is, because she's been tagging along while I try to solve the incident."

"Wait," Kasen incredulously uttered, "She went with you to solve the incident?! What is she thinking?!"

"Well, it's not like she's trying to solve the incident," Reimu answered in the slightest defence she could make for Marisa (and her own decision not to mind her presence, as well), "She's just sightseeing the different world and following me around so I can watch over her."

"'The different world'? Are you saying that all this time, you and Marisa weren't in Gensokyo?"

"Yeah," Reimu plainly responded, "That's why I haven't been to the shrine at all until now. I couldn't just be in the other world on and off."

"I had no idea..." Kasen muttered without even noticing, pondering on the shocking situation. Reimu blinked in turn, as if unsure why Kasen would be so shocked to begin with. Just as she taking in her awed expression, Kasen's eyes sharply lock onto Reimu, and her frown deepened. "Though, if you're back now, where is Marisa? It doesn't seem like she's at the shrine, but when I visited her house, she wasn't there either."

"Oh, we can't return to Gensokyo at the same time, so I had her stay in the other world," Reimu absent-mindedly answered after processing the relatively simple question from Kasen. "By now, I think she's sightseeing, but the last time I saw her, she was with some suspicious guy I met."

"You left her alone with someone suspicious...?!" Wide eyes narrowed dangerously as Kasen shot a glare Reimu's way. "Weren't you watching over her?!" she exclaimed with added fervor, leaving Reimu to arch her eyebrows in moderate skepticism.

She ultimately shrugged casually and shook her head, rejecting Kasen's supposedly needless anger. "It's not like she'd stick around the weird guy anyway, and since there's no imminent danger in that world, she's probably fine," Reimu dismissively stated while waving her hand around. "You worry too much, really."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

For once, Marisa was glad for the dark, humid cavernous area below the restaurant. While walking through the streets of Zaban city lit by the morning Sun, Marisa was further reminded of her headache and heavy eyelids unwilling to linger on anything even remotely resembling brightness. She was almost losing herself among the maze of streets, and was glad to at least be graced with food on her descent inside the elevator. Marisa sighed, and stood slowly from the chair as she stepped inside, to a darkness that would not strain her poor eyes. She reached for her number tag, stored in a compartment of her skirt, and while fiddling with the tag, she continued to walk, unaware of the glances her way sent by the applicants.

Instead, Marisa flinched under the tapping of someone's finger from the side of her right shoulder and gasped before setting alarmingly shocked eyes on the familiar figure that could easily tower over her from a standing position. "Hi there," he smoothly greeted as he retracted his arm, "Marisa." The only proof of his amusement from her reaction was his low chuckle and eerie smile, all of which were beginning to warrant a step back from Marisa, who hung the tag on her cast so as to have a vacant hand. "Did I scare you? You don't seem very alert today."

Marisa grimaced, her blank gaze indicating the troublesome weight of the realization of Hisoka's existence. _Crud,_ she thought, _I had this guy to deal with._ "Can't I still be drowsy in peace?" Marisa sourly countered, "My hair'd turn grey thinkin' about when you'll show up all the time."

"I thought it would be obvious I would come up to you," Hisoka said, "considering we had an agreement." His eyes then narrowed, and he hunched forward ever so slightly to near her eye level. "Now, you couldn't have possibly forgotten, could you?"

Again, Marisa decided to keep her distance and step back. "Let's just say I was so stoked for it I couldn't even think straight," Marisa dryly voiced as she adjusted her hat, which had been clumsily leaning to the side. "Didn't even let me sleep at night."

"Is that so?" Hisoka uttered, "Your expression doesn't match your words, though."

The challenge laced into his words did not go unnoticed by Marisa, who momentarily scowled in light of his perceivable upper hand on the situation. She was sure he hardly cared for something as insignificant as a smile, but her lips curved upwards regardless. Swallowing her pride with a gulp, Marisa presented a vacantly friendly smile, though it was visibly unnatural from Marisa's tense expression and gaze. "What about now? Real stoked-looking, right?" she asked in a strained voice belying a twisted sense of assertive adventure, which Hisoka appeared to be facing with a neutral frown, much to her chagrin.

"I suppose I can give it a bronze star for effort," Hisoka said with a shrug, emphasizing Marisa's failed efforts. _Yup. I really don't like this guy._

"You sure are demanding," Marisa bitterly commented before noticing her smile had faded. As such, in less than even a moment's notice, Marisa flashed Hisoka an exceedingly empty grin. "You're sayin' you've met people with brighter, more honest smiles than mine?"

"... Who knows?" Hisoka retorted with a surfacing smile, marking Marisa's (self-imposed) victory. "I might just be so blinded by the radiance that I can't see it properly."

"That's what I thought," Marisa said, "Wouldn't wanna start picking fights you said you'd put off for later, right?"

His hand lightly placed over his chest in a similarly apologetic gesture, Hisoka's gaze peered into Marisa's as he responded, "Of course not. We've still got a lot to do together, after all."

"Besides, if your goal is Reimu, you'd be in big trouble if you killed me," Marisa added, her smile now wry in nature, directly showing the contrast between the lighthearted mood she was hoping to keep for herself and the reality of her displeasure. Regardless, she was sure that she would pique Hisoka's interest through that statement, even if he would consider it a bluff initially.

Hisoka's gaze narrowed to the point Marisa could only see half of his iris reflecting the same apathetic shine that would drive her away now that she knew what he was capable of, and he hummed with keen fascination irradiating from the soft sound. "How so?" he asked with a step forward, but Marisa did not move then.

She stood upright, smirked half-heartedly and conversationally offered, "Why don't you start being my tour guide and find out?" Marisa removed the number tag from her cast then, and turned around to head for the elevator as she pocketed the tag. "No way you're gonna guess where we're from, that's for sure." She knew he would follow her, and did not decide to turn back despite the temptation to watch for an attack. She inwardly praised the fact that the corpse she had seen the day before had been cleared from the scene somehow, and recalled the genuinely content smirk she had spotted from the corner of her eye when she was turning to face the elevator, hoping that curiosity would be enough to smoothly avoid danger for the remaining days without Reimu.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"... I don't know about you, but seeing as she left for another world with her arm broken, I don't think I can trust her judgment anymore." _Good point..._ Reimu thought, but remained silent with an apprehensive smile, knowing Kasen would only show further anger and scold her for her irresponsibility. "Even then, are you absolutely sure there is no imminent danger there? If we consider the mastermind's power, leaving Marisa alone with droves with natural-born Nen-users seems like a terrible idea no matter how you put it," Kasen argued with considerable concern as she placed a hand over her chin as if to ponder on the hypothetical scenarios in which Marisa could be placed in.

"Well, the place has a lot of people, but not all of them can use Nen. The power's such a secret it took me all this time just to get a lead on what kind of people could use it over there," Reimu explained, "I wouldn't think Marisa could run into Nen-users that easily."

"That different world sounds safer than I imagined, then," Kasen remarked with faint curiosity, which shifted slowly to a somber frown. "Though, if even over there, Nen isn't well-known, there must be a good reason for it. I can't imagine why the mastermind would want to spread that kind of danger to the people in Gensokyo if not to make its balance crumble." Kasen laid eyes on the sky above her for a moment, and sighed.

Meanwhile, Reimu nodded, her gaze cold as she pondered on Kasen's words. "You're right," Reimu said, "They must really be trying to bring Gensokyo down; not that I'll let them." Then, she puffed her chest up in pride, and assumed a fighting stance similar to the ones she had assumed bare-handed on Heavens Arena, each of her hands loosely positioned at a moderate distance from each other in a pitiful attempt to emulate a martial art not even Reimu could possibly discern. She smiled regardless, easygoing as widely expected, and watched Kasen's expression soften in face of her familiar confidence. "The moment I get a lead on them, they're going down."

"You're working very hard, for a change," she playfully voiced, nearly erasing Reimu's upright posture, but successfully removing her smile. "It almost makes me feel like I'm not doing enough for this incident, myself."

"Who said you needed to do anything?" Reimu retorted, "Solving the incident is my job, anyway."

"It's not like I'm aiming to beat the mastermind, but there is something about the incident that's on my mind," Kasen clarified in a low voice, tainted by the graveness of something Reimu had seemingly little knowledge about, warranting her confusion.

"And what's that?" she asked with furrowed eyebrows and crossed arms, settling now for the continuation of a conversation rather than an imaginary fight she would envision for herself and the troublesome mastermind she was chasing.

"Well, Marisa was attacked by a human from the village that could use Nen, right? Meanwhile, on the day before, I was attacked by a youkai, and he used Nen," Kasen answered, her every word carrying more and more of an ominous hint in its genuine investiment in the situation, which Reimu could not help but face with further skepticism.

"Huh? Can youkai even use that power?"

"The rumours say otherwise, but I was definitely attacked by a youkai. I didn't think much of it at the time; I assumed he learned Nen somewhere since the mastermind was probably not human," Kasen said, "but now, I'm starting to realize I made an oversight. Rather than having been attacked by a youkai that wanted to show off their new powers, it's very likely I was instead attacked by the mastermind themself."

"By the mastermind?!" Reimu uttered in pure shock, "But that other world doesn't have any youkai!"

"That's not it," Kasen said, "The mastermind is probably human. What I'm saying is that there's a very high chance that the youkai that attacked me was being possessed by the mastermind."

"Possessed? Why would you think that? You should know that kind of case virtually never happens."

"I do know that, but..." Kasen cast her gaze to the ground momentarily, as if to organize her thoughts in the middle of her small pause. When she faced Reimu once more, she was grimacing. "After looking back at the attack, I can't help thinking that youkai was acting strange," Kasen said, "almost as if their movement was being controlled for them. Besides, even if Nen was leaking out of them, it didn't seem like he was able to properly use it. While youkai who are practically unheard of, I find it hard to believe that the mastermind didn't have a direct hand in this attack."

"That _does_ sound very strange for a youkai..." Reimu muttered, deep in thought. "It helps that the mastermind has the ability to possess people, if anything. Maybe possessions using Nen work differently from how a ghost would do it."

"Maybe so." The nod of her head was uncertain, much akin to her first response in its lightly bleak nature. However, from what Reimu could verify, Kasen's gaze remained sharp, befitting of a determined individual. "Either way, I'm not exactly thinking of taking the mastermind down, but I do want to get to the bottom of this. Nen is too much of a mystery to simply leave be, especially when it can even do something like that to youkai."

"What are you planning to do, then?" Reimu asked, curiosity evident in her voice alone as she motionless stood, expectant of any noteworthy turn of events.

"I'm going to search for the youkai that attacked me and try to find out more about Nen. It might take a long time to find a single youkai in all of Gensokyo, but I really want to tie this loose end somehow, and that's the best way as far as I can see."

Reimu hummed pensively and in acknowledgment of Kasen's goal, though her nonchalant expression continued to suffer no changes as she said, "I can see how it'd be important to know about that, but assuming the mastermind did possess that youkai, do you have any idea why the mastermind would target you specifically?"

"Didn't the mastermind also target Marisa? I thought it was so we wouldn't be able to interfere with their plans," Kasen responded, "Though, on my end, they ended up failing to incapacitate me."

"Well, Marisa herself told me the attacker wasn't possessed, but I wouldn't rule the possibility out, to be honest," Reimu said. "Still, that doesn't make sense. I mean, if the mastermind would bother attacking you and Marisa so you wouldn't get in their way, why didn't they target me directly? The most they did was mess around with the barrier while I wasn't looking, and it's more than clear that I'd interfere with their sinister plans."

"That _is_ contradictory..." Kasen paused to further consider the proposition with a momentary grimace removed only after she locked eyes with Reimu. "Then, what if their aim differed with each target?" she offered, thinly frowning under the light weight of hypotheses.

"Huh?"

"For example, they may have known that you would be too focused on the barrier to pay attention to the rumours in the village if they tampered with it, so they decided to do so in order to keep you away from the incident at hand," Kasen explained calmly and with enough focus that Reimu, invested, would nod her head as she spoke, as if to mark her understanding, "Meanwhile, since nothing could really get Marisa away from anything out of the norm, the mastermind had her incapacitated. On the other hand, since they knew I wouldn't immediately assume it was the mastermind's doing if they sent out a youkai to attack me, they decided to mislead me that way."

"In other words, the mastermind wanted to distract me, injure Marisa and deceive you all so we wouldn't get in their way?" Reimu questioned with blinking eyes, surprised by strangely multi-faceted nature of the matter.

"It's only a possibility," Kasen reassured, taking that slight confusion as some form of pessimism. "Besides, the most all of these could do was buy time before we'd take notice."

"I don't know about that..." Reimu absent-mindedly muttered as her frown deepened, displaying new bitterness towards new surging thoughts on the incident. "If anything, I have a feeling I wouldn't have known a thing about the incident if Marisa hadn't been attacked. Could it be that the mastermind was showing off, instead? They could have been tampering with the barrier, injuring Marisa and deceiving you all to flaunt how dangerous they are." Unable to contain it, Reimu scowled, and a trembling fist was raised from the sudden fervor of her mindset instead of her Purification Rod. "But if so, they definitely could use a beating! I almost thought they actually wanted to break the barrier or something, but the more I think about it, the more likely it is that they were just trying to make me think they could do that!" Reimu loudly groaned in face of the possibility she was seeing as true fact at that point, only to add in her frustration: "I can't believe this!"

"Well," Kasen started in a soft, perhaps solemn voice, "If the mastermind did mean to taunt us rather than silence us, I understand where you're coming from, but getting angry would be exactly what the mastermind wanted." While Kasen stated that, her expression was almost eerily calm, perhaps cold, as if masking anger. "We wouldn't want to dance over their palm any more than we already have." Reimu focused on Kasen upon hearing that, her expression only lightly sour. "Besides, either way, none of that would stop us from pursuing the incident. If you think about it, they didn't accomplish anything from their actions, so there's no need to feel down."

Somewhat resigned, seeing reason in not appeasing the enemy, Reimu sighed. "Yeah..." Then, despite everything, she managed to smile, warranting a mirror reaction from Kasen with the added exception of less pride that Reimu would easily exude. "No matter what they end up plotting, it will never stop me, anyway."

"Now that's the Reimu I know," Kasen remarked after gently giggling. "Anyway, I came here to see if Marisa had decided to check on you, but now that I know she was actually in another world, I suppose there's no point to searching for her at all anymore. Could you at least tell her about this matter we just talked about? I ended up saying that youkai could use Nen, but since I can't be sure of that now, I wouldn't want her to keep believing that."

"Well, alright," Reimu nonchalantly uttered in response.

"Then I'll be off," Kasen said, "I've got to start looking for that youkai, if he's even alive. I'll see you later." With that, Kasen flew from the area, leaving Reimu to stare into the sky as she waved her way. Despite Kasen's parting words, Reimu noted, they were likely not going to see each other again so soon, as Reimu was only staying for at least one more day before she had to come back to the other world and take the Hunter Exam.

Now that she was completely alone again, Reimu's gaze lowered to the shrine grounds, and she glanced about in search of her broom. Behind her, to her left was the tree she had left it on, and the broom continued to rest there, untouched. While she turned around and walked for it, planning to put it back where it belonged, Reimu's thoughts were elsewhere, drifting through possibilities related to the incident.

While it had failed to linger in her mind for very long after she had been transported to another world, Reimu had not forgotten about the mastermind tampering with the barrier. Rather, she had simply known they would not be able to shatter or change its properties so easily, making her shift her focus to gathering leads. However, after her conversation with Kasen, she was admittedly curious: were the mastermind's actions only meant to distract Reimu? Had he no plans relating directly to the Great Hakurei Barrier?

In order to continue watching over that, Reimu had stayed in the shrine for the remainder of the day, along with the next. Somehow, Reimu was not surprised to note that nothing had come into contact with the barrier during her entire stay.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

After three days of observing one of the rookies from a corner, Tonpa had come to a shocking realization. Though, at first, he had concluded that the assertive applicant had died by Hisoka's hands, murdered out of her friend's sight or Tonpa's sight, it became increasingly clear to him that the blond rookie was showing no concern over her friend's disappearance. As such, it was safe to assume that she was expecting her friend to be out of sight, making it much more likely that she had only decided to leave the exam site temporarily. At the time, he had indeed briefly seen the other rookie jumping towards a strange glowing contraption, but he figured it was only a certain ability of hers, used in order to run away from the ruthless murderer that was Hisoka.

Admittedly enough, from the moment he had seen the two run for Hisoka, he had decided to pay little mind to them and failed to truly observe them talking, marking them as dead from the get-go. However, upon noting the cautious female rookie coming in and out of the exam site alongside Hisoka (walking side by side), chatting with him (with none other than Hisoka) in a seemingly unreserved fashion (as if she did not fear him in the slightest), Tonpa's, and most applicant's attentions had been almost involuntarily garnered by the sheer impossibility of the reality they had witnessed. By the time Marisa was sitting by his side while taking a deck of cards from one of the pockets on her backpack, laid down on the ground to her left, all in order to imitate his pastime and attempt to construct a tower of cards, Tonpa was unable to deny the truth.

The rookies were on good terms with Hisoka. They were perhaps, if Tonpa could even will himself to finish that train of thought... Well-acquainted; _friends,_ even. Simply tempting the prospect had him freeze in place, unable to think beyond the hypothesis. After all, Hisoka was a terrifying applicant: he had witnessed his deeds himself, and concluded that getting involved with him was sure to result in death, some way or another. If the Hunter applicant responsible for the deaths of twenty other applicants and the incapacitation of an examiner, a Hunter of considerable skill, happened to have two friends in the strange-looking female rookies and they did not fear him at all, it was very likely that they were just as terrifying as he was; cold-blooded murderers in the form of two young women.

The fact that he was almost going to confront them directly and poison them with laxatives crossed his mind whenever he laid his eyes on the rookie and Hisoka together, and the feeling that would intersect that thought was close to the shock that came with a near-death experience. Had they not gone up to Hisoka as quickly as they did, Tonpa could have faced a more than dangerous situation, whether due to their own anger, or even Hisoka's; every time that notion surfaced within him, he deeply praised his own luck. Alongside such a variation of relief, Tonpa would grimace resentfully, finding nothing good or advantageous about two rookies too dangerous to crush, all the while reminding himself not to get involved with them under any possible circumstance.

At the moment, the darkly-dressed young woman had two cards in her left hand, which she was trying to separate using only her fingers. Her hand would wriggle about so as to find the best position to move the cards' lower edges away from each other in an attempt to create the rudimentary and precarious structure of a tower of cards, but her efforts tended to be in vain: the cards would either fall entirely, or they would stay and fall by the time she was readying the next pair. Now, she had managed to line three pairs of cards side by side, and she was in such a way concentrated on her task that her eyes almost ceased to blink. At that point, she was no longer concerned with proving Hisoka wrong; she only wanted to make the effort because a challenge was in front of her.

Conversely, Hisoka had long but completed and destroyed his own tower two days ago. The trips outside the exam site had him entertained enough not to resort to the pastime, and even as the evening arrived, the motivation to build one again did not come; he simply did not feel like it. Regardless, he was sitting near the young woman, Marisa or so he remembered her name was, while leaning on a wall, his position opposing the corner she had decided to settle in and giving him an ample view of her sorry excuse for progress. Naturally, his interest in staring intently at her did not stem from her currrent action, but in her expression alone.

That pinpoint focus, attentive to any small movement; her tireless motivation, preventing fatigue from weighing her down and her headache to be truly registered by her; and most of all, the unwavering determination belying her yellow eyes, reflecting a singular desire, a will to win. Even despite the context, which he cared little for, he could not help find himself entranced, or interested at the very least, by such straightforward, earnest expressions; so pure, yet so fleeting. In a moment's notice, he could tear that away from her and make it crumble into pieces distorted with bitter despair, and he could almost taste them.

Almost was the keyword. It was simply too easy. Far too easy. As she was, Marisa was completely wide-open to any and all attacks. No matter her skill or strength, even her injury, her unyielding focus would not provide her with the time necessary to react to outside actions without sustaining at least the slightest damage. In a way, that stance projected some amount of confidence in her; it was as if she did not expect any harm to come her way. That innocence was tempting. So tempting, he could not avert his eyes from her.

He needed a distraction. Anything to stop him from wasting a potential opponent before she could satisfy him to her fullest. Alternatively, a different target would do; someone inconsequential, enough to recover his bearings. However, he felt almost glued to his current position, unaware of the nearly deranged smile apparent in his deathly pale features. The rest of the applicants had put even more distance from him out of fear and caution, feeling the killing intent from afar.

He had to stand, and look away. He had to shift his focus somewhere else, or else he would not be stopped. Hisoka closed his eyes and reminded himself of his priorities, if only barely, in the midst of varying conflicting desires. _Not yet..._ The chant felt almost endless, but it was a necessary process. Patience had never been his strong suit. Furthermore, he had not soiled his hands in so long, and his recollection of that makeshift duel with Marisa including its ensued casualty would only heighten the urge. Even so, Hisoka found the need to suppress it all for the time being, until the perfect chance arrived.

It was then his eyes fluttered open, though almost half-heartedly. Gone was the crazed expression, replaced by a cool smirk, representative of no clear positive emotion. He swiftly stood, and looked around, noting the dramatic increase in applicants from the past few days. The area was wide, but it was currently occupied by over four hundred different people, all in their different corners of the room. Calculating eyes evaluated every nearby applicant so as to decide where he would go, though most of them scored disappointingly in his view; he at least hoped for an applicant that would rank higher than an injured, distracted Marisa. In the end, just as he decided to simply pick at random, he noticed a strange light from the corner of his eye, of a familiar purple colour.

His smirk widened when he faced his right, where Marisa lay grimacing at her failed attempt, but only because of the neatly shining door behind her. Marisa had been hunched forward in order to more closely see the cards' positions, but the space between her and the wall was minimal, leaving space for only a set of arms to pass through the backdoor. At that point, the strange sensation that came with something entering from the door on her back had situated her in the reality around her, and Marisa had attempted to look behind her in order to see Reimu.

What she presumed to be Reimu's hands were pressed onto the wall, but by the time Marisa had noticed that, she had already been standing up and from the wall to give Reimu space. "Woaah!" Almost as if shot out of the door, Reimu's body threatened to slam into the ground had she not used her ability to float. While Reimu slowly landed, the door disappeared from sight, and Marisa regarded her awkwardly.

"Oops," she uttered before smiling apprehensively. "My bad."

From the glare Reimu shot at Marisa the moment she said those words, Marisa knew that the apology had not been sufficient. "Geez, Marisa! Couldn't you have just done whatever you were doing without being so close to a wall?!" Reimu placed a hand on her hip as she looked to the side in an attempt to ascertain what Marisa even was doing to warrant the sitting position. Seeing only her backpack and a mound of cards behind her, Reimu's eyebrows rose in blank doubt. "What were you even doing, anyway?"

Marisa glanced behind her and recalled Hisoka's presence as she pondered on why she had taken up building card towers to begin with. Looking to the side, she pointed at Hisoka while bitterly scowling. "Showin' him up," she responded before retracting her hand from the position it was taking from the sore pain caused by her incessant card placement.

"And failing at it," Hisoka interjected, garnering Reimu's attention just as planned. Reimu frowned as she took in Hisoka's presence near Marisa, already feeling some of her energy being drained preemptively from his meddling. _Why is she still with this guy?_

"For now," Marisa sharply countered while stepping for the cards scattered about, figuring she would no longer have the time to continue attempting to assemble a proper card tower. Since her voice had been faint from the growing distance and equally as faint in Hisoka's conscious, he did not grace her with a response and instead focused on Reimu.

He smiled at her in an almost cheery, though loose fashion. "Welcome back," he said. The phrase warranted some confusion for Reimu.

"Even if you tell me that, it doesn't feel very welcoming to be back here in comparison to home, you know?" Reimu retorted, though her stance seemed entirely neutral in face of Hisoka's ominously content expression. "I just want to get this over with."

Hisoka, on the other hand, saw that fearless demeanour as amusing, and relished in peering into her gaze for as many seconds as the pause would allow without any consequences to his own agenda. He smirked, only to conversationally ask, "By the way, your home is in another world, right?"

"Huh?" The sudden question perplexed Reimu, who blinked as she wondered if he was joking from the casual tone. Regardless, she responded, "Well, it is, but I didn't think you'd know that."

"I heard a lot about that from Marisa while you were gone," Hisoka lightly clarified, as if simply to get the matter out of the way. "It's definitely an interesting piece of information to have about someone. Though, I doubt most people would believe it unless they saw it for themselves."

At first, Reimu glanced Marisa's way, her eyebrows arched in moderate doubt. _She even went out of her way to tell this to a suspicious guy like this? What for?_ Seeing Marisa begin to turn around, however, Reimu faced Hisoka again, now with a dismissive shrug. "Whether they believe it or not is none of my business, and it wouldn't compell me to take them there, either. I already have my hands full with an outsider as is," Reimu affirmed, "The last thing that I'd think of is to go out of my way to bring another in that mess."

"Especially you," Marisa added as she approached Reimu and Hisoka, her hand holding on to a strap of the backpack in order to place it over her shoulder. She was staring directly at Hisoka, so there was little room to mistake who she was referring to. "I bet you'd cause all sortsa trouble over there."

Hisoka eyed Marisa with apparent curiosity, though his knowing smile served to question its veracity as he vaguely uttered, "Define 'trouble'."

Marisa grimaced, as if a gruesome mental image had surfaced in her mind. She met Hisoka's gaze in a blank manner, desensitized from his general attitude, and quickly answered, "If it's you, probably serial murder."

"And what makes you say that, now?" Hisoka asked almost as an invitation covered by his purposefully skeptical intonation, which he was sure Marisa, at the very least, would uncover. He was checking on Reimu's expression from the corner of his eye, and there was a cryptical lack of emotionality in her assessment of the situation now beyond the faint sound of the tapping of her right foot in impatience, showing only her eagerness to progress with the exam.

There was little surprise in that, amusingly enough, while Marisa's palpable sour mood seemingly helped carry the dulled, weary voice in her words. Easily in its simplicity, Marisa spoke her response: "How about that one time you tried to kill me? Knowing another guy died from that really made me start taking fortune-tellin' seriously, that's for sure."

It was then Reimu's expression was distorted beyond recognition with a burst of colossal shock, causing her eyes to widen like none before. Her balance almost faltered as well when she immediately shouted, "He did _what_?!"

"I was just showing her a magic trick," Hisoka said just as quickly, and garnered her full attention in one fell swoop. His calm stance invoked confusion in Reimu, whose piercing glare had just reached his way in a manner perhaps too tempting for Hisoka's peace of mind.

Even so, he truly had to see it to its end. "A magic trick?"

"Do you want to see it, too?" he casually offered, just like any harmless pastime. A chuckle would have almost escape from his lips if not for the continuation, which he deemed far too necessary not to include and add to the already steeled shimmer in Reimu's current gaze. "I'm sure you'd survive just as well as Marisa did, for one."

Said gaze narrowed, and hollow apathy poured from her every word as she spoke: "Then you really did try to kill Marisa. Is that what you're saying?"

Conversely, Hisoka's smirk stretched to ominous lengths in his pale features, demonstrating a longing in his eyes that was being sorely ignored by Reimu's supposed covert fury. "What if I did?" he smoothly asked, his deepening voice showing little traces of whatever the truth of the matter happened to be; it certainly mattered little to Hisoka, whose only goal in sight was the young woman in front of him. "Would you retaliate for revenge?"

In a moment of silence, Reimu lay motionless, with a void reflected in her gaze. Marisa had considered speaking up, but she could see the true anger in Reimu and averted her eyes, while Hisoka continued to note that mysterious demeanor expectantly. Her first signs of movement appeared with the trembling of her fists, followed by a tense twitching of her eyebrows, which threatened to furrow to extreme lengths. However, perhaps constituting the most suprising of her actions, Reimu's expression softened in but a quick mound of seconds that allowed her to sigh the situation away. "Look," Reimu bitterly, albeit calmly asserted despite the previous weary display, "If you're so eager to pick a fight with me, could you just do it already and get it over with? I don't have the patience to deal with somebody constantly trying to see if they can get away with it after taunting me." Then, Reimu brandished her weapon, and eyed Hisoka resolutely despite the simple-minded, almost nonchalant fighting stance. "So, either you come at me once and for all so I can beat you up, or you stop wasting my time skirting around the real reason you're talking with me."

Naturally, Hisoka was aware of the fact that he had led the conversation to that conclusion; as such, he had expected all sorts of blunt answers from them. Regardless, while he thought himself prepared for anything, Reimu's words echoed heavily in his mind, resonating with his current fighting mood almost perfectly to the point it struck as comical to Hisoka. It had been enough for him to recall that Reimu's appearance in the exam site had truthfully only been a distraction; a mere means to ignore his rising urges. Her words alone were already amusing enough, as Reimu seemed to have unconsciously picked up on his motivations and responded firmly, with a expression so tantalizingly assertive, convicted, that he was left with no words to say in return.

Rather, while he could think of a few, he could not utter them in place of his first reaction: simple laughter. Though Reimu did not phrase it directly, he knew; he had known so long before that instance. He could understand from his own sharp gaze that Reimu could see through him almost effortlessly, as if bound by no limitation. Furthermore, there was no fear, disgust or hesitation present within her or Marisa, whose nonchalant response only slightly contributed to his heightened mood. A hand covered his face as he continued to laugh, leaving Reimu and Marisa to stare in slight confusion, albeit not enough to bother questioning the origin of Hisoka's amusement.

Even their confusion was so clear and simple, lacking in any weakness. Though he hoped to contain himself for a while longer, he was sure that would not be. Regardless, they still could not become his targets, he noted. Not yet. Despite Reimu's extremely tempting challenge, he could not succumb so easily. Someone else had to suffice, and he would have to leave them behind so as to see to it he would not accidentally ruin such growing potential.

At the same time Hisoka's hand was slowly sliding down from his face, the blaring sound of a peculiar alarm resounded in the area, attracting the attention of every Hunter Exam applicant. Hisoka only briefly glanced towards the source in an almost uncaring, absent-minded fashion, while Reimu and Marisa faced that side and marveled at the fact that the cavernous location had a hidden passage. The bizarre alarm had been stopped by then, and the rising wall revealed a single man standing upright in the precise center of the entrance to an immeasurably long path. Reimu and Marisa's attentions had immediately been glued to the unknown man, whose mouth seemed almost invisible in comparison to his dark moustache.

Though they held some questions in regards to Hisoka's reaction in their conversation, the matter was seemingly not important enough to linger in their minds as they heard composed-seeming man speaking out: "I apologize for the wait. As of now, the entry period for Hunter applicants has ended." His words rung through the room, entirely silent from the man's mere presence. Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa watched in anticipation, noting that the time had finally come. "The Hunter Exam will now begin!" The announcement came as no surprise to them, but Marisa's smile had widened regardless, all the while she seemed to tremble in excitement. "However, I must give you a final warning: if your proficiency or luck are lacking at any point of the exam, you may very likely find yourself heavily injured or even dead as a consequence. Unless you are truly ready to accept that responsibility, please take the elevator behind you and leave this area at once." _As if anyone'd give up after gettin' this far,_ Marisa thought as she glanced around the area in order to check if any applicant was stepping away. As if the intensity and significance of the Hunter Exam were a literal weight on their shoulders, almost every applicant could barely even make the slightest movement; though Marisa mentally remarked on that in an almost amused fashion, she was no different from them.

With a calm nod of his head, the man stated, "Very well, then; all 406 applicants will participate in Phase One." He swiftly turned around, using the momentum from one of his legs to begin walking forward at almost the same time. The Hunter applicants followed behind him at a slightly slower pace, while Marisa and Reimu glanced each other's way as if to wonder if simply walking behind the man was the right choice. Marisa briefly faced Hisoka, whose expression was almost too cold and unfeeling not to warrant some unease. Upon seeing Marisa's frown contort to a grimace over Hisoka's suspicious behaviour, Reimu simply shrugged, considering that enough to dissuade Marisa's tension. Then, she proceeded to follow the applicants, though only around half had gone past the area they had been confined to before the hidden passage had opened.

Marisa's gaze shifted to Reimu immediately as she processed she could lose her to a crowd of over four hundred Hunter applicants, leading her to dash for Reimu and catch up to her. Though she glanced at Hisoka one final time, Marisa was uncaring of his wellbeing; instead, she had some concerns for the wellbeing of the people around her. "Incidentally, I neglected to introduce myself," the man at the very front of the mound of people who had started running at a moderate pace claimed in a calm, unwavering voice. "My name is Satotz, the examiner for the First Phase of the Hunter Exam. I have taken it upon myself to lead you to the location of the Second Phase."

"The Second Phase?" Reimu and Marisa heard an unfamiliar, albeit loud voice question that with pure confusion, but could not exactly mull over the inquiry when the applicants around her had suddenly started quickening their paces, as if to desperately reach out for the examiner, Satotz. "What about the First Phase?!"

A moment of tense silence overcame the immeasurable path, while Reimu finally found herself frowning in light of her running self, uncertain of whether she should start flying or not. Marisa, on the other hand, was loosely accompanying Reimu's casual speed while tilting her head to every side in a failed attempt to see past the tall, gruff applicants and observe Satotz. "It has already commenced," Satotz said and with that, the silence had become entirely obsolete. The passage was filled with varying hushed voices, most expressing confusion, while others expressed even awe at the revelation; Reimu and Marisa were not able to pick up on every single whisper or exclamation, but they had soon realized there was no need to do so. "You must follow me to Phase Two. This is the Exam's First Phase."

"Follow you?" the same loud voice asked, "Is that it?!"

Another period of silence from Satotz, though this time, it was short-lived, leaving Reimu and Marisa no time to distract themselves from the explanation. "Yes," he cooly responded, "I cannot tell you where or when we will arrive. You will have to simply follow me there." The applicants continued to speak among themselves, while Reimu and Marisa were strangely silent, pondering on the contents of the First Phase of the infamous Hunter Exam.

The first one to break the ice was Reimu. "Well, this was kind of disappointing," she casually remarked, lacking in any sadness that would come from that supposed disappointment. "But then again, my expectations weren't that high to begin with. Still, weren't you looking forward to this thing? I don't think you'd ever get excited over following a random guy, so I'm guessing you're even more disappointed than I am right now."

"Are we just supposed to follow him, though?" Marisa questioned, her voice conveying nothing but doubt over the first phase of the exam. "This whole thing could be like the preliminaries and have some weird hidden meaning in it; ya never know. I was thinkin' it could be an endurance test at first, but you noticed he just told us to follow him. He probably doesn't care about the means as long as you're right behind him, and since he can't tell us when or where he's takin' us, I'm starting to assume it's a psychological test."

"A psychological test? This running thing?"

"Yup," Marisa responded without hesitation, but also without tension. "He's askin' us to trust him enough to just follow him wherever he's taking us. Even if he said so himself, we can't be a hundred percent sure the guy's an actual examiner, or if he's really guiding us to the second phase of the exam. Our mental strength's probably being tested this time around."

Reimu hummed in a mix of acknowledgment and disinterest. "I suppose your theory's the most likely to be the guy's intentions," she said, her voice neutral, "but it doesn't stop this phase from being boring. In the end, we still have to follow a linear passage."

Marisa frowned, unable to fake excitement at that point. "Can't deny ya on that one." Then, she removed her broom from between her backpack's straps and sat on it as it floated in the air and mimicked Reimu's pace effortlessly. "Wanna fly over to the front? There's no way you'd actually try runnin' the entire phase."

"True," Reimu plainly uttered as she looked around her. The path seemed completely devoid of any aesthetic changes no matter her progress through it: faint red lights high up in the walls, a strange metallic material covering said walls and a humid, uncomfortable ground of a dark colour; none of that struck as welcoming to Reimu. "Besides, the front is bound to be less cramped than over here..." The light sound of something rolling successively upon the ground had caught Reimu's attention enough that her words trailed off, elongated as she looked behind her.

"Hey." The remarkably casual voice seemingly calling for Reimu and Marisa belonged to the boy she had spotted rapidly moving for their position on some sort of wheeled means of transportation Reimu was unfamiliar with. She could not help but marvel at the simplicity of it, as it to her appeared as nothing more than a wooden board on very small wheels, but the boy was perfectly balanced on it and had caught up to them in less than a minute. Then, a hand loosely directed itself to Marisa's broom, pointing its way. "Is that thing actually flying?" While his question was posed nonchalantly, his dull blue eyes were ever so slightly wide with considerable interest, and it was clear he sought an answer from Marisa as he was staring expectantly at her.

"Can't ya tell?" Marisa floated higher in the air as if to further fundament her inquiry, from which the boy could not help but utter a long, almost careless 'Oh' in awe of the demonstration. "If it couldn't fly, I'd be fallin' right now," Marisa said while lowering herself again to be at the boy's line of sight; somewhat pleased with the boy's genuine curiosity, Marisa smiled. "Pretty convenient, huh?"

"You can say that again," the boy pensively acknowledged while staring intently at the broom in an attempt to scrutinize it completely. However, no matter how hard he looked through it, he could see nothing but an ordinary, if not even shabby bamboo broom under Marisa. Regardless, he bashfully smiled while facing Marisa, almost deliberately so; Reimu noted that vacantly. "By the way, think you could give me a lift over to the front of this crowd? I was planning on catching up with my skateboard, but I'm pretty interested in that broom right now. It's the first time I've seen one fly like that for real."

Meanwhile, Marisa was puffing her chest up in pride as she regarded the curious boy. "Sure I can! I was plannin' on getting ahead, anyway." Marisa slid closer to the edge of the broom, making space for the boy, who scratched his head as he flashed a cheerful, albeit sly smile as he walked for the broom.

"Thanks," he responded before casually sitting on the broom from the side, though his face was turned to Marisa, who was by his side. He could feel the broom swiftly cutting through the flow of the air simply by rising in altitude and leaving behind the applicants running below, something he could not help but smirk at upon coldly assessing the situation. "Huh... This thing sure can fly. It's stabler than I thought, I'll give you that."

"Right? It's also way faster than you'd think," Marisa claimed in excitement, her voice clear and bright; it seemed lacking in either malice or falsehood. "But I'm holdin' back 'cause of Reimu over there." Then, she stretched her only vacant arm to the side so as to loosely point at something. Someone, the boy curiously noted.

"Who? Your friend? But didn't you just leave her..." The boy followed the direction offered by Marisa's hand in order to find that supposed Reimu, though his gaze was blank with neutrality at the prospect of it being a person. However, when he did lay eyes on a bitter-looking Reimu, who was grimacing Marisa's way while floating nearby at the same speed as the broom, the boy's eyes widened with considerable surprise. "She's flying on her own...?!"

"Well, I'm sorry for not being as stupidly fast as you, then," Reimu countered, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she crossed her arms midair. The boy's eyes had already locked in on Reimu intensely, his gaze cold with ominous musings about the method used to be able to float. "Besides, this barely looks like the end of the path, so it's not like we're in any hurry; we only need to follow the guy. I'm taking it as slow or as fast as I want." Even so, there was nothing he could think of that could achieve the resulting sight: Reimu was indeed flying, something unthinkable for the normal human being. Noticing that Reimu's focus was shifting to him, the boy immediately snapped out of his analysis, as if to make sure to survey her movement. The cautious movement was noted by Reimu as strange, but not enough to quite annoy her. Despite that, she frowned almost nonchalantly. "And who are you, anyway?"

 _I did sense a presence nearby, but I figured it was just a stronger applicant running below us; not somebody flying right next to us! Just what sort of person is she...?_ the boy thought incredulously, but his cautiously ominous expression did not convey any of that agitation. Instead, apathetic eyes stared straight into Reimu's, who seemed much the same way. The boy frowned, pondering on what to make of Reimu. "I'd ask you the same question. Are you even human? Because you really don't look like one, just so you know."

"For your information, I'm just as human as you are," Reimu responded, unwavering even under a gaze she perceived to be far too cold to be considered normal. The boy, on the other hand, felt as though Reimu's lack of hesitation was indicative of more than the simple casual demeanor she projected. Rather, it appeared as a sign of strength and experience to him: a mark of someone who had seen far too much in their life to flinch at anything minor.

Finding some commonality between her and himself, the boy huffed almost indignantly, though he himself was entirely neutral to the seemingly boring development, as he could tell that Reimu's guard was high enough that he could not simply do as he pleased in the same way he could with an easy target. "Oh, really?" Despite the question, it was clear to Reimu the boy did not seek an answer simply from the disinterested tone in his voice, which led Reimu simply to glare at the boy, having assumed he did not believe her. "Guess you're not that human either, then."

"Wait, are you some kinda magical beast?" Marisa asked, "Did you wanna know if Reimu was one of ya or something?" The cheeky smile on her voice was accompanied by a hand only partially over it, as if to avoid full-blown laughter.

"No!" the boy immediately exclaimed as a retort, glaring Marisa's way and fully breaking the innocent mask by that point, but he was beyond that matter in face of the bizarre situation. "And why does it even come to that?!"

"Well, you were the one implying you lacked humanity," Reimu casually stated.

The boy grimaced, his expression soured with mild irritation. "But not all of it!" he responded. "What are you two supposed to be, anyway? Witches?"

"That's not even close to what I am," Reimu flatly argued, unsure if being angry at the boy was worthwhile considering his assumption.

"I'm a magician, if anything," Marisa interjected.

"A magician?" the boy questioned, seemingly curious. "Are you Hisoka's apprentice or something?"

"And how the hell does it come to _that_ , huh?!" Marisa exclaimed in pure disbelief, her eyes widened from the shock that had been brought by the mental image of any official involvement with Hisoka, the man she had finally been separated from after three days.

"Weren't you the only person in the room getting all buddy-buddy with the guy? Anyone would assume there's something going on there," the boy nonchalantly offered, "People call him Hisoka the magician, too. Makes more sense than your hypothesis." He shot a brief glare at Marisa, expressing his resentment for having been riled up by her. Then, he smirked almost triumphantly as he was sure he had just executed his revenge.

Meanwhile, for Marisa, the very thought had her hold back cringing, but she simultaneously could not deny that an outsider's impression of her time with Hisoka would have been exactly as the boy had described to her (if they had been entirely away from earshot, at the very least). The predicament revealed a despaired scowl from her, as she attempted to make sense of the situation. Reimu, on the other hand, was staring at Marisa in pure wonder, seemingly surprised. "Oh, my," she uttered, garnering Marisa's attention, "Did that kind of thing also happen while I was gone? This is your vacation or whatever, but I don't see how a long-distance relationship like that would actually work out between you and whoever that guy is, Marisa. You should probably give that commitment some more thought than that, you know?"

"... Huh?" _Am I getting lectured by Reimu of all people right now?_ Marisa's thoughts came to a halt just as she realized the content of Reimu's words, which indicated a misunderstanding of colossal proportions, enough to induce pure shock (and disgust upon Marisa). "Wait!" Her eyes as wide as they could possibly be, Marisa protested, "Now all this hypothesis stuff is gettin' out of hand 'cause there's no way in hell that ever happened! Don't you know the guy just as well as I do?!"

"Who? That magician Hosoka guy?" Reimu genuinely questioned. "How would I know about some guy I never met?"

"It's Hisoka! And you did meet him; way earlier than I did, to boot!" Promptly noting Reimu's vacant gaze, implying complete confusion, Marisa grimaced. "The serial killer. The guy we left behind?"

"Oh, that weird guy!" Reimu exclaimed, only to frown in an almost awkward fashion. "Well, now I just feel bad for you. I was assuming something completely unthinkable." Marisa nodded along with Reimu's words, seeing that even she could not help but grimace. "Sorry for the mental image, by the way."

"You should be," Marisa begrudgingly retorted before shifting her gaze to the boy next to her, who seemed to have been attentively listening to the conversation in a remarkably neutral, unbiased fashion. His expression was pensive, perhaps overly so, though he was able to immediately pick up on the fact that Marisa and Reimu's attention was back on him again. "Anyway, we barely know that guy at all; most he did was get Reimu to take the Hunter Exam, kill a guy and hijack my vacation. So people really call him a magician, too, huh...?"

The boy faintly nodded, as if uncaring of the inquiry. "That's what I heard, at least," he responded. "It's just a title, though, so I doubt it's anything as surreal as what she's doing right now." He pointed at Reimu, whose eyebrows arched in confusion from being specifically examplified as acting surreal.

As much as Marisa would playfully smile from whatever humorous retort Reimu could make in regards to the blunt gesture, Marisa felt instead more compelled to frown, almost vacantly so as she pondered and reminisced. "Well, it's not surreal in that sense," Marisa interjected with little thought put into her words, "but it's somethin' else, alright."

"What, you think he's actually some kinda wizard?" the boy retorted while sending a skeptic look her way, illustrated by his lightly raised eyebrows in reaction to the matter he cared little for.

"No clue, to be honest," Marisa responded, yet to meet his gaze as she looked towards the ceiling with a grimace, "but I'm not about to let my guard on him again, that's for sure."

The boy hummed in an only lightly curious fashion, though his actual thoughts on the matter were few and far in between in face of the sensation of his feet hanging in the air. "Can't say that's a bad choice, if anything," he remarked simply, but left it at that with a shrug, which Marisa curiously accepted upon deciding to direct her eyes towards him again. "More importantly, you two are the real deal, right? How about you show me some magic?"

"You wanna see some of my magic?" Marisa blinked for a moment, surprised at the seemingly sudden request. However, the more she considered what appeared to be his genuine fascination, along with her need to transition her train of thought to a positive topic, the more Marisa's grin assumed an overwhelming nature from its sheer brightness, reducing the boy's own smirk into an awkward frown as he processed her pride and excitement. Marisa then scratched her head bashfully, as if to appear modest, but in face of her extremely motivated self, no one around her could believe in that act. "Guess I got no choice but to show ya if you're that interested! Not that I can blame ya!" As if to gain some focus, Marisa's eyes narrowed, and her smile was thin when she had looked up at the ceiling. The boy took in that precise gaze, while Marisa exclaimed, "It's no Master Spark, but check this out!" With a snap of her fingers, the boy immediately shifted his attention to Marisa's hand, and its surroundings. Three star-shaped projectiles of unknown origin were aimed upwards as Marisa waved her hand in that direction, all of them colliding with the ceiling and causing a light explosion upon contact, which served to rattle both the boy, whose eyes widened in surprise, and the applicants below him, who looked up in shock, some of them being hit by the debris falling from above. "I can shoot out way more than that, but this path's too narrow and all that so I had to hold back this time around. If we get outside, I could always show off my signature move!"

The boy, however, was far too distracted with his own thoughts to give Marisa a quick response. His expression cold and almost calculating, he cast his gaze on the ground below him, though he was not truthfully taking note of the angered applicants complaining about Marisa's attack. _Those stars just now were definitely real: they came out of nowhere, without anything supporting them, and they moved when Marisa aimed them at the ceiling; there was nothing attaching her hand to those stars, either. Does that mean she can control their aim with her mind? No matter what kind of technology she has, she wouldn't have been able to materialize those stars without showing any signs of taking them out automatically or otherwise, and she only had one arm; she didn't have the leeway to wield any device to control the stars or the stars themselves. In other words, Marisa's demonstration was nothing short of magic, and so is her partner's ability to fly; not to mention that purple door they could conjure on the exam site. But, then, what's the trick behind those...?  
_

"Hey!" A male voice snapped the boy out of his train of thought, as it had been particularly louder than the rest; he looked down at its origin out of sheer curiosity. "I don't know how the hell you pulled that off, but flying through is cheating!" Having figured they were being called upon, Reimu and Marisa had only now looked down to face the man who was stopping them in such an accusatory fashion. The man was running at moderately fast speeds, though it was clear he was struggling. His incredibly small glasses somehow showed no signs of swaying or falling from his face, which was hunched forward from his desperate running position.

Next to him was a shorter young man, whose clothing fluttered with his every light step. It was clear he was having an easier time running through the passageway, but he seemed to be accompanying the other man's pace. His cautious gaze, greyed with dull irritation from what he perceived to be the other man's needlessly loud behavior, quickly became one of shock the moment he laid eyes on Reimu and Marisa. He scowled when his gaze shifted back to the man, sparing the flying three a few glances as if to make sure they would not suddenly attack. "Leorio...!" he called out in a hushed voice while his hand pushed the man, Leorio, down to his direct line of sight and forced him to look his way. "Can't you recognize those applicants...?! They're the two rookie women seen talking to Hisoka! Are you trying to get us into danger?!"

"Wha..." For a moment, the shock caused by the revelation silenced him after he glanced up at Reimu, Marisa and the boy next to her on the broom, who were staring in neutral confusion. "Those two...?!" However, even as he pondered on the circumstances he had brought upon himself and his group, he could not help but grimace, feeling his fists tremble in pure anger. Leorio removed the young man's arm from him and looked towards Reimu and Marisa, his gaze unwavering. While Reimu, Marisa and the boy noted that in a casual fashion and his companion reprimanded him in vain, Leorio huffed condescendingly before exclaiming, "Well, even the Devil's gotta submit to the rules if he wants to pass the Hunter Exam! Whether they're crazy dangerous or not, cheating is cheating and they should be ashamed of it!"

Marisa and the boy seemed entirely unfazed by Leorio's words, simply taking them in with pure curiosity. Meanwhile, Reimu had crossed her arms and lowered herself to properly face Leorio, who glared at her just as intensely as she was glaring at him. "What are you even talking about, anyway?" Reimu asked. "I don't remember cheating or doing anything shameful. Are you going to explain yourself or were you just trying to pick a fight?"

"What, didn't I make it clear enough for you?!" Leorio countered, "Flying is against the rules! You're cheating! Don't you know some shame?!"

"We get that part," the boy interjected from afar, leaving Marisa to glance at him before lowering herself to Reimu's low altitude. "But why's it cheating?"

"Huh?!" Leorio turned to face the boy in confusion, having not noticed or related his presence with Reimu and Marisa before. "Isn't it obvious?! It's because this is an endurance test!" Marisa and the boy glanced each other's way, vacantly processing Leorio's response.

"No, it isn't!" Then, a new voice garnered everyone's attention, as they all looked behind them or to the side in order to identify the origin of the voice. It belonged to a boy dressed in green, his age likely similar or equal to the other boy's, who was staring at him in wonder. "The examiner only told us to follow him!"

While the young man next to Leorio could not help but smile at the boy's straightforward retort, Leorio watched in irritation as he caught up to them effortlessly. "Gon!" he shouted, "Which side are you on here?!"

Troubled, the boy running next to Leorio, Gon, found himself unable to respond to Leorio's question, leaving the young man nearby to fill in for him in a cold fashion: "On the side of common sense, evidently. Maybe you should learn to listen to others before you start shouting off on your own." Leorio was quick to react, shouting back at the young man, who sighed before saying something of his own. Meanwhile, Gon was staring at that before facing Marisa, Reimu and the boy in pure curiosity, lightly musing on their presence.

Finding the lack of conflict more than confusing, Reimu turned to Marisa with a frown on her face. "In the end, what was all of this about?" she questioned while briefly glancing at the trio near them in disinterest, though some disappointment was evident in her voice.

Marisa shrugged. "No clue." _At least it looks like I wasn't the only one thinkin' this is more than an endurance test..._ she thought, her gaze fixated on Gon. _He's probably a sharp kid, just like the one next to me._ She glanced at the boy, only to verify that he was in the middle of facing her, as well.

He was smirking, while pure wonder was reflected in his eyes; Marisa decided to keep her focus on him, figuring he had business with her. "Hey," the boy uttered, "I changed my mind. Can you just drop me off here?"

"Plannin' on getting to know the kid?" Marisa asked with a sly smile. "You look the same age, after all. I bet you'd get along just fine."

The boy locked eyes with Marisa, whose words seemed strangely genuine despite the playful tone. A moment of silence coursed between the two, all the while Reimu interjected, "He's keeping an eye on us, too. You might as well be the one to break the ice if you're not planning on going to the front with us, whoever you are." Unbeknownst to the boy, Reimu was also smiling, equally amused at the situation. However, he had listened to her as well, and found himself grimacing at what he perceived to be teasing from both of them.

He averted his eyes from Marisa. "It's Killua," the boy plainly said before dropping from the broom without hesitation or difficulty, aided by the low altitude Marisa had placed herself at. "My name, that is."

"Killua, huh..." Marisa muttered.

"Why don't you go tell that to them already?" Reimu retorted. "See you around."

"Go get 'em, Killua!"

At his limit, Killua turned around and saw them already flying forward at much faster speeds, though they were still waving at him with cheerful expressions. His scowl deepened further as he saw that, feeling thoroughly underestimated. "Go stick your nose on somebody else's business, you weird witch duo!" he ardently exclaimed, but knew they would be unfazed since they were already far into the horizon, almost unable to hear the precise contents of his words. _Well, I was the one who got them into my business._

The more he thought about that, the more uncomfortable he would get, as the prospect of genuine moral support was more than embarrassing in his mind. So as to quickly forsake the train of thought, he took to mentally asserting the two were only making fun of him, underestimating him because of his age in order to keep a cool head when facing the person he was actually interested in meeting. _Not that it matters. It doesn't change the fact that they were being nosy._

Said person, along with the two who were together with him, were already staring at Killua expectantly, even as they ran past him. It was becoming increasingly clear to him that they had heard his conversation with Reimu and Marisa. He cursed his curiosity over real life magic, knowing it had led him to this point, and proceeded to fling his skateboard at the ground before hopping on it, only to then use his left leg, which was off of the board, to push it forward. The gathered speed of the swift transition to riding a skateboard was enough to immediately surpass the speeds of the three that had been staring at him, who displayed different forms of bewilderment over Killua's chosen course of action. _Let's just pretend this never happened._

While Gon's eyes widened in surprise and the young man nearby blinked in pure confusion, Leorio's shock had promptly ended by the time Killua was precisely next to him, about to ride past him with an eerily unemotional expression representing his lack of a will to speak up and his meager attempt at hiding his flustered self. Leorio's shock had instead transformed into pure irritation, if not frustration as he rushed to block Killua's direct path forward. "Now just you wait a second there, kid!" he exclaimed. "Don't you have anything to say to us?!"

"Not really," he responded before steering his skateboard to Leorio's right and proceeding past him. He had not even looked Leorio in the eyes, and for good reason, as he felt only like focusing on his present path.

"Well, I've got a lot I wanna ask you about, though!" Even so, he could not help but listen to and recognize the voice that was specifically addressing him. He reflexively halted his movement, letting Gon, Leorio, and the young man accompanying them catch up to him effortlessly. "So can't you at least stick around for a while?" Gon offered in a seemingly lighthearted manner, almost deliberately so. When Killua faced him, having sensed his presence to his right, he noted his friendly expression ever so slightly distorted by an all too knowing smile. The young man and Leorio smiled from behind them, equally as aware of Gon's intentions.

Regardless, Killua decided to willfully ignore that. "Guess I'll run, then." With a moderately strong stomp of his foot, he forced the skateboard upwards and grabbed onto with using one arm before he broke into a run by Gon's side. He placed that skateboard under his shoulder and smirked while directing his gaze to his right. "Gon, wasn't it? I'm Killua."

Gon flashed Killua a grin. "Nice to meet you, Killua!"

As if to counter the overwhelmingly welcoming presence Gon was exuding, Killua shrugged. "So," Killua uttered in a nonchalant fashion, "What's on your mind, Gon?"

Immediately noting Killua was referring to the questions Gon had mentioned in the spur of the moment, Gon pensively hummed as his eyebrows furrowed with serious consideration. "Let's see..." he muttered, only for his eyes to widen in slight realization. "Oh, I know! What kind of people are the two ladies you were with? I've never seen people who could fly before!"

Killua was unable to suppress his scowl. "Ugh, them? They're a bunch of busybodies, that's what." He rolled his eyes while Gon smiled apprehensively, pitying Reimu and Marisa's efforts to cheer him on. "Speaking of, I forgot to ask Marisa where she got that flying broom. It looks so phony it's ridiculous, but it's a real flying broom."

"I thought it looked cool. I've never seen people fly at all before!" Gon exclaimed in slight awe, replaced by a smile only because he had resigned from organizing his thoughts of excitement over the matter and switched trains of thought. He eyed Killua then, showing mild curiosity. "By the way, the one in the flying broom you were talking about was injured. Is she okay?"

"Oh, good question, Gon!" Leorio interjected. "I've been wondering about that one."

"I know," Gon stated as he glanced behind him so as to at least briefly face Leorio, letting him know the question was for his sake. Leorio was content with that, and Gon was soon focusing on Killua again. "I'm not sure of how well you know them, but I thought you could at least have some idea about that."

"Nope," Killua immediately answered, "Not a clue. I only met those two when they got away from Hisoka and started flying, so I didn't get much time to ask them a lot of stuff. I just know they can use magic and get along with Hisoka as much as anybody here."

"You mean the two and Hisoka are not that well-acquainted?" the young man questioned, garnering Killua's attention as he glanced back at him.

"The one in red didn't even know his name," Killua answered. "It looked more like they were subjected to hanging out with Hisoka than anything."

The young man's eyes narrowed pensively, while Leorio looked his way in curiosity, wondering what was on his mind. "I see..."

"So that's how it was..." Gon muttered, taking in Killua's information slowly before offering a sheepish smile. "What were their names again? I'm kinda curious about how their magic works." He scratched his head in a light display of awkwardness, though his gaze was expectant.

Killua, on the other hand, was unfazed by his statements. "It'd be weirder not to be; they clearly aren't normal," he said as though making a factual observation. "The one in the broom is Marisa and the flying one is Reimu, by the way. Probably."

"I wonder how Ms. Reimu can just fly like that," Gon voiced exactly as he thought that, his gaze unfocused and absent-minded. However, just as suddenly as he had let that stray thought slip, Gon's attention shifted back to Killua. "Do you think she can teach us?!" His question had been genuine and straightforward, phrased loudly and excitedly enough that it managed to have Killua's eyes widen ever so slightly at the sight while frowning.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"Well, I'll just talk to her later and sort it out when the time comes," Gon dismissively claimed. "Also, you caught my name, but what about everybody else's?"

"Everybody else's?" Killua questioned. "If they were mentioned somewhere, I sure don't remember."

"I'll introduce you, then!" Gon glanced behind him and pointed to the young man, who was only a few meters away. "This is Kurapika!" Killua nodded along while the young man, Kurapika, had been staring at Gon in curiosity before shifting his focus to Killua and noting his keen lack of interest, which warranted him no introductory words in Kurapika's perspective. Meanwhile, Gon pointed at Leorio, who smiled at him. "And that's Leorio!"

"How's it going?" Leorio said, his tone conversational.

"Pretty good in comparison to you," Killua plainly answered, if not simply because he had been spoken to. "I heard it's not healthy over-exerting yourself at your age, mister."

"You brat, are you trying to say I'm old?!" Killua only smirked in response to the threatening inquiry, though Leorio had been more than sure of said answer before Killua had even bothered to so unsubtly display his amusement. "I'm in the same generation as you!"

"Seriously?!" The perceived veracity from Leorio's genuine exclamation induced unrelenting shock upon the three, as their expressions were as frozen from the shock as they could possibly become. While Gon and Killua had been able to put said shock into brief words, Kurapika saw the predicament as entirely impossible and quickened his pace as a result, leaving them behind in order to forget what had transpired.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Not one soul paid mind to those left behind.

It was not out of disinterest. Some of them had friends who worried for their wellbeing, but were unable to look back. Others had originally been staring at them with malicious eyes, amused by the predicament of the fellow applicants. Moreover, a man in particular had his aim as on a certain applicant, who lagged behind the crowd at a far too great distance to recover.

Tonpa, however, knew better than to execute his plan now. He had long but made sure to advance in the crowd, in an attempt to avoid even looking at the massacre. The others behind him were much of the same, and those at the very back of the mound of applicants trembled in fear as they glanced behind them.

In the middle of about five different corpses strewn about the tunnel was one short applicant, slowly attempting to dash towards a crowd that would not come back for him. _Impossible...! This can't be...!_ While a hand reached out for the keyboard of a portable computer strapped to his shoulders, typing agitatedly, another hand wished to grasp the people in the horizon, but meagerly failed to do so. _How could I possibly fail?! There's nobody better than me!_ His fatigue was in such a way intense that he could hardly perceive his surroundings; his gaze was directed only at the front, where true danger was not present. _Whether it's arts, or sports, or all sorts of studies! I have never once failed! But then...!_ His heavy breathing echoed through the passageway, and sweat covered his entire body. While he was no longer aware of his surroundings, the pain was far too clear to him, and indicative of a reality he did not want to face. _Then, why...?!_

His foot far too quickly placed in the wrong position, facing the side, the applicant felt his ankle twist, and his knees colliding with the ground, which dirtied his bare legs. He yelped in pain, but attempted in vain to stand using one of his hands pressed against the ground to support his weight. Unbeknownst to him, his computer hung dangerously low, as if nearly falling.

Unbeknownst to him, there was someone behind him. A scream had rung by at the precise moment his ankle had been twisted, and he was unable to notice the noise while his desperate thoughts coursed through his mind. "Why?!" _Why have I just fai **—**?!_

Before he could even acknowledge reality, and see his own shortcomings, a single card sliced through his neck, and his consciousness quickly faded along with his life. The man who was once behind him ran past the applicant, Nicolas, without even sparing him a glance. _At this rate, it will be harder to catch up with the examiner..._ he absent-mindedly thought, though his speed was already enough to cover half of the distance he had between the crowd of applicants and Nicolas's corpse in only a moment. _But I'm sure those two will be at the front. They can fly, after all._

Displeased, the man could not help but grimace. _If this hadn't been so disappointing, I might have been able to join them with a free conscience._ His visibly bitter mood reinforced the applicants' fear of him, but he seemed to be uncaring of their presence as he swiftly dashed past them. _Though, as it is..._ He glanced over the area, and was unsurprised to verify nothing of interest in his surroundings; nothing that could satisfy him. The most he could entertain himself with was, pitiably enough, his imagination: the prospect of being the opponent to his current objects of interest. However, the mental image only proved that his desires burned intensely within him, and bound him to a hollow sense of longing hoping to be fulfilled. _I couldn't hold back even if I tried. I suppose I should try to keep my distance, or else..._

Now, only 399 applicants remained. To Hisoka, however, such a matter was more than trivial in comparison to the adversaries he found worthy.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Reimu and Marisa had only needed a minute or so to reach the very front of the running applicants, though they did not dare to advance beyond the examiner (by Marisa's admission) on the grounds that they could be disqualified for not truly following him. From then on, uncountable hours had passed with Reimu and Marisa running from time to time between the top runners and Satotz, the examiner whose speed was such there was a considerable gap between him and the applicants. It was clear Reimu and Marisa could not feel the psychological stress of running for hours on end because of their timely breaks in between because of their sleep deprivation, but in exchange, the boredom of seeing no end in sight to the path was eating away at their energy. Marisa blinked successively, drowsiness overcoming her, while Reimu equally attempted to stay awake as she feared she could actually fail if she fell asleep.

"Isn't it practically nighttime already...?" Marisa questioned, though her voice was quiet from lacking energy. "Why the hell do we have to pull an all-nighter just to run a whole path?"

"That's my question," Reimu said. "Are Hunters expected not to sleep ever or what? This just makes me want to return to Gensokyo and go to sleep there."

"Don't actually do that, though," Marisa sharply reprimanded after a few seconds necessary to take in Reimu's words, as she was too sleepy to give them proper thought so fast. "If you're found out, you'll probably be disqualified, and that'd make this whole thing pointless."

Reimu groaned at the mere prospect. "This is such a slog..." she muttered as she rubbed her eyes, hoping that would lighten the weight of her heavy eyelids. "Oh, by the way..." Surprisingly enough, after blinking for a moment, Reimu found that some of her drowsiness had faded from her conscious, though she knew she needed sleep. Regardless, the slight energy she had gained was enough to improve her sense of focus. "Kosuzu said she hopes you get well soon. I almost forgot about that."

"She did? That's cool," Marisa remarked before smiling, recalling Kosuzu fondly. "How was the village? Still full of rumors?"

Reimu shrugged. "How should I know something like that? I didn't leave the shrine at all just so I could check if the mastermind was still messing with the barrier," Reimu said, "so Kosuzu was the one who went up to me. She apparently went to retrieve some books I didn't return while I was gone."

"Huh..." Marisa muttered in a lightly disappointed fashion, only to blink in realization and speak up: "Did you see Yukari anywhere, by the way?"

"Yukari? Why would I be seeing her in my shrine?"

"Well, she was around when I visited," Marisa explained with a grimace as she reminisced, "Said she was expectin' somebody, and that she had some evil plot to go through. I didn't get what she was up to, but you should probably know that."

"Wasn't she just waiting for me to come back?" Reimu suggested with a shrug. "She wasn't accounting for this situation for once, so it'd only make sense."

"I thought that, too, at first," Marisa said, "but she said she didn't care when you'd return, so it had to be somebody else."

"Somebody else? Don't tell me it was supposed to be the mastermind," Reimu bitterly uttered, and she placed her hand below her chin as she pondered. "Were they still messing with the barrier?"

"No clue," Marisa vacantly responded, "but I guess it could be the mastermind. Maybe she was just watching over the shrine."

"If she is, I definitely don't trust her," Reimu asserted, her gaze on the horizon rather than on Marisa, as if on there were projected the mental image of Yukari smiling slyly her way. "Who knows what kind of things she's scheming under my roof?"

"Can't say I don't agree with you there," Marisa said mirroring Reimu's expression, seeing instead the image of her locked door intact, but with Yukari precisely in front of her. "I'd be way creeped out if she were sneaking around my house."

"Right?" Reimu then sighed, seemingly weary of even thinking of the matter. "Though, if I didn't run into her while I was on break, I suppose she's not there anymore, thankfully enough. I'm just hoping nothing funny happened while I was gone..." she muttered with narrowed eyes, only to direct them to Marisa with a hint of curiosity. "Anyway, Kasen also stopped by to look for you, but I told her you were here."

"She was _still_ tryin' to check up on me?" Marisa questioned in an almost dramatically bleak fashion, warranting a scowl in quick succession as she continued to argue: "I don't need her looking out for me just 'cause my arm's broken. I can take care of myself."

"Well, she wasn't very convinced of that when she heard you'd gone with me to this world," Reimu simply retorted, enough to have Marisa avert her eyes from Reimu.

"It was the only chance I had to explore a whole other dimension," she awkwardly countered, "No way I'd miss that."

"Uh-huh..." Reimu crossed her arms and stared at Marisa for a moment, noting she was losing track of the original topic. "She told me to tell you that the guy who attacked you was probably not lying, and that youkai might not actually be able to use Nen, so make that what you will, if anything."

"Huh? For real?" Marisa asked with moderately widened eyes, thinking back to their last conversation as she turned towards Reimu again. "But didn't she get attacked by a youkai usin' Nen? How's she concluding the attacker was right?"

"According to her, that youkai was probably possessed by the mastermind or something along those lines," Reimu dryly explained, as if disinterested in the matter. "As far as I can see, it's pretty far-fetched, but I suppose I wasn't there when that youkai attacked her, so I don't really know the details. She said she was going to investigate this whole thing by herself."

"That sure was unexpected..." Marisa bitterly muttered, troubled by her uncertainty regarding Kasen's decision. "You wouldn't normally think youkai'd stay alive after being possessed."

"Right? It's pretty awkward that she's exploring that idea," Reimu remarked, marking the last sentence of their conversation. For a few moments, the two were silent, but mulling over a different topic to develop upon simply to escape the horrifying boredom of continuously following the examiner, whose wide steps were far too fast for most of the people running to catch up, even those in the very front. The more the silence permeated their immediate area, the more the sound of the applicants' footsteps intensified and became a background to their rapid thoughts in desperate search for something, anything to speak of.

 **. . .**

Then, both spotted something in the horizon that broke the monotony of the cavernous passage. "Hey, isn't that a bunch of stairs?" Marisa immediately asked, though she was sure that she was gazing at a white set of stairs. She could not see where they led, as they continued on almost endlessly. Regardless, the mere sight of them constituted a change of pace to Marisa, so she felt somewhat refreshed now that she was seeing an end to the linear path.

"Maybe we're close to the end of this boring passage," Reimu said, her voice soft with hope as she smiled, feeling some determination well up from within. "We don't know what other tests are waiting for us, so let's just put our sleepiness past us and get this exam done with! I'm raring to get some fresh air!"

"Yeah! We're clearin' this one and nothing's gonna stop us!" Marisa faced Reimu by turning her broom, only to lift her left arm and direct her extended palm towards Reimu. After the improvised, cheerful high-five, Marisa noted that the top runners were already over the stairs, and that she was simply over them. She smirked in pride before voicing out, "Still, we're lucky we can fly. Imagine havin' to actually run through these stairs while sleep-deprived."

"Ugh, no way," Reimu flatly asserted, almost as if in disgust, uncaring of the many applicants behind her who were glaring her (and Marisa's) way begrudgingly, jealous of their extremely convenient ability. "Flying through is already painfully boring, but running would be torture no matter how you look at it." Unbeknownst to her, the resentful glares only intensified, but no one was able to truthfully confront Reimu, either because of their efforts to conserve their energy, or because they did not see themselves with a justified reason to do so.

"Think you could've passed this phase if you couldn't fly?" Marisa asked, curiosity overflowing from the question. "At least I never saw ya run this much in my whole life."

"That's probably because I never _needed_ to run this much in my whole life," Reimu countered. "But, I mean, if I had an incident to solve, I'd probably make it somehow. That's just the feeling I have."

"Yup, that's Reimu for ya," Marisa remarked. "We'd probably had a shot at passin' this if we couldn't fly, though. It'd be a totally different story if my ankle were still sprained, but we'd make it."

 **. . .**

Unfortunately, Reimu could not find anything pertinent to say in regards to Marisa's statement, resulting in her silence and another premature end to what they had hoped to be a long and smooth conversation. However, they had been on their own for hours already, and were already too familiar with the silence that originated even with the boredom of having already spoken for too long, so now Reimu and Marisa were not especially in the mood to speak to each other. Even so, since there was truly nothing better to do while following Satotz, they were still resorting to each other as their main form of entertainment, so they continued to desperately think of a good topic.

"Now that I'm thinking about it..." Reimu muttered after finally recalling something that had left her curious. "While I was at the shrine, you were with that Hisoka guy, right?" Reimu frowned, perplexed at the thought, and crossed her arms. "Why didn't you just ditch him?" Her gaze reflected doubt, perhaps even confusion, which only served to unnerve Marisa, who scowled from that reaction.

"I couldn't," Marisa flatly responded, her gaze cold as she further mused on the past few days. "I was plannin' on that but he took over my vacation and before I knew it, I was being taken places while being made to talk about Gensokyo. The deal was to just give him some rough information in exchange for good spot reccommendations so I could leave him for good, but it's like he knew what I was up to and weaseled his way into hanging out with me for those three days. I'm guessin' it was so he'd get more than I was originally planning on giving. The worst part is that I'm no match for him with a broken arm, so I had to go along with whatever he wanted out of me. At that point, I had no choice but to enjoy what I had, creepy serial killer or not."

"He also tried to kill you at some point, right? Geez, right under my nose..." Reimu mumbled with a grimace. "I'm sorry, Marisa. I didn't think that was going to happen to you," Reimu said, her voice eerily calm. "Well, I knew it would be a bit dangerous leaving you when he was around, but I thought he wasn't very interested in being around you; I let my guard down on that end."

Marisa blinked awkwardly. "Kinda weird seeing you apologize like that," Marisa said, "but, uh, it's alright, I guess. He's not around anymore, either. Besides, I _might_ have been the one to provoke the guy first."

"Did you have a death wish? He's clearly not the kind of opponent you can take down with a broken arm," Reimu admonished.

"I knew that, but I thought he wouldn't do anything," Marisa said, "since he even bothered getting me to spill the beans about you and all. And I was bored, too, but still."

"That's no excuse," Reimu retorted. "So don't go troubling me by doing anything suicidal again, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Marisa said. "I sure don't wanna go through that again, at least."

"Good, because I seriously don't want to have to worry about you dying over here again," Reimu said, "Anyway, is there even an end to these stairs?" Contrary to Marisa, Reimu's emotionality seemed to have been entirely erased the moment she had figured Marisa was able to handle the situation successfully on her own, leading to the carefree remark. "Maybe the point of this phase is to see through the fact that this passage is never-ending."

As if amused at the emotional contrast, Marisa smiled. "That'd suck," she said, "Look at all the time and sleep we'd have wasted just followin' the examiner if you were right."

Reimu shot a glare in Satotz's direction. "Oh, he would pay for that," Reimu sourly asserted, "I wouldn't just do something like this for nothing."

"Scary stuff," Marisa loosely commented, as if detached from the mental image of an angry Reimu, though she could see it as clearly as her surroundings.

 **. . .**

Yet again, the awkwardness was overwhelming. Reimu and Marisa were starting to realize the sheer boredom the phase exuded was enough to turn all topics stale, no matter their effort. That sense of hopeless was accompanying the awkwardness hand in hand, and Reimu and Marisa could not help but scowl in face of that. Unwilling to let that state continue further as she recalled her more or less drowsy self, Reimu was the first to break the silence: "Hey, Marisa; don't you have anything interesting in that bag we could distract ourselves with?"

"I already gave ya half of the food I bought," Marisa dejectedly, if not dryly answered, "and if there were somethin' in here we could do together, I'd have already taken it out of the bag. Just give up, Reimu. There's no hope for us."

"Didn't you have those cards? It's not like they were only made for you to stack them, right?" Reimu questioned. "There have to be some card games we could play with that."

"Where can we even play card games if we're on the move?"

"We can just keep the cards in our hands or something, I don't know," Reimu dismissively said, "To be honest, that's the least of our problems right now. The real issue here is that we need a game we can play with those cards."

"The real issue here is that this phase is freakin' boring," Marisa countered.

Meanwhile, Reimu surveyed the area, locking eyes with some of the applicants. Despite that, she shook her head and turned around once more, seemingly frustrated. "Geez, where's that Hisoka guy when we need him for once? He knows about card games from his world, right?"

"Well, I didn't buy that deck for nothin'," Marisa said before grimacing, thinking of Hisoka. "But seriously, you wanna bring Hisoka here to play cards? We're not that desperate."

Reimu took a few seconds of silence to consider Marisa's words, only to calmly nod. "I suppose you're right." Reimu smiled. "We're not that desperate. How many cards does that deck have, anyway? We could just play card games from our world if we have fifty two."

"Well, we've got fifty two, but... Wait..." As Marisa faced directly forward, her tired gaze focused on the stairway, her eyes widened in awe and she pointed upwards, towards a light she could see in the horizon. "Look, Reimu! The exit...!"

"Seriously?!" Reimu shifted her attention to the light as well, though she was already grinning from the sheer refreshing feeling that came from escape the dark, humid passageway. "Finally! I almost thought this thing would never end, but we made it! Just a little more and we're right there!"

"Yeah! We're done with this stupid cave! Go, us!" Their hands collided again in a heartfelt high-five, while both smirked triumphantly at their preemptive victory. They decided to fly for Satotz, planning to reach the top of the stairs at the same time as him, so they began to distance themselves from the applicants running at the very front, all of them noting the great difference in speed.

Then, another rowdy duo dashed past the young man, who was at first bewildered at their running speed and their age, taking in the fact that they were two young boys, only to snicker. "Look, Ms. Reimu and Ms. Marisa are already over there!" The boy in green, Gon pointed up at Reimu and Marisa, who were half the distance between the running applicants and Satotz. Satotz, however, still had tens of steps to climb, so Gon saw in that a chance to overcome Reimu and Marisa's speeds.

His recent friend, Killua, clicked his tongue in irritation. "Those cheaters," he bitterly remarked, "We're not about to lose to them, Gon! Let's hurry over there!" With that, Killua and Gon quickened their paces further, and found themselves gaining some considerable ground over Reimu and Marisa.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, Reimu and Marisa had heard their own names being uttered by a voice they were unfamiliar with, resulting in them halting their movement and turning around in curiosity. Upon noting Killua's presence, they smiled, especially as they saw that Gon was precisely next to him. "Hey there," Marisa casually greeted, "What's the hurry? Racin' to the top?"

"That's right!" Gon cheerfully responded. "And we're about to get past you, so you can say goodbye to your victories!" He stuck his tongue out at Reimu and Marisa when he reached their right, while Killua was running past them from the left.

Killua waved at them, as if to say goodbye, while mischievously smirking. "Your fault for stopping for us!" Reimu and Marisa turned to face them again, staring at them in slight confusion as they quickly caught up to Satotz, who was climbing the very last pair of steps when Gon and Killua had reached both of his sides simultaneously.

They heard more cheerful voices from them, but now they were plainly at the top of the stairs, so their words were muffled due to the distance. Reimu vacantly stated, "We weren't even racing them; or each other, for that matter. Where did that even come from?"

Marisa broke into a chuckle, having taken in the situation quicker than Reimu. "Guess they're havin' fun together now. Good for them, huh?" Marisa looked towards Reimu with a smile, but found that she had been surprisingly quick to mirror her expression.

"It's at least good to know they have so much energy after running for more than six hours," Reimu said before flying forward again, "But we're not about to lag behind, because we're finishing this phase once and for all!"

Marisa huffed. "Look who's talkin'," she muttered, "You're just as energetic as they are." Then, she followed behind Reimu, only to effortlessly surpass her speed with her broom and winking her way upon rushing through the end of the stairs and jumping off of her broom to the white stone floor, near Satotz, Gon and Killua. Even so, Reimu did not seem fazed by the display, gracefully landing on the floor by the edge of the stairs.

She walked past Satotz and cast her gaze on Killua and Gon, who seemed to be speaking to each other in an animated fashion. "Then I'll buy you dinner!" Gon exclaimed, warranting considerable confusion from Killua, whose eyebrows lightly rose to convey that. "And in return, you'll buy me dinner!"

"What's with that...?" Killua weakly and dryly muttered, as though disappointed underneath the initial confusion he felt towards Gon's idea. Gon, on the other hand, did not falter from Killua's reaction, as he instead dismissed the topic in order to turn towards Satotz, who was stoicly observing their interaction.

While Reimu was approaching Marisa, who in turn was moving closer to Satotz's position, Gon asked, "Hey, Mr. Satotz; are we at the Second Phase now?" Reimu had paid no mind to that inquiry, having assumed the response to it beforehand. However, Gon and Satotz were in Marisa's line of sight, so she had figured it would do her good to keep an eye on the conversation.

"No." The mere word, short and calmly-voiced, was enough to garner the full attention of Marisa and Reimu, whose eyes widened in pure, unadulterated shock. "We still have a long way to go until we reach it." His following basis for the response led Marisa to flinch, while Reimu's fists trembled in pure frustration, which she was itching to let out on someone.

Marisa turned around, but saw only mist covering thick foliage. She had wanted to spot any signs of the next phase's location, to see if perhaps Satotz was exaggerating, but it had been a useless effort; he had stated only the truth. Marisa grimaced at the scenery before her, humid, barely visible and most of all, vast enough that additional hours would be required to reach wherever she and Reimu were supposed to. "Well, Reimu," Marisa dryly uttered, "looks like we got no time to rest, but at least there's the fresh air you wanted."

In light of Marisa's painfully accurate observation, Reimu had no other response than a piercing glare.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Omg that took freaking years to write and I'm probably still gonna add a few things here and there (hahaha this is why I shouldn't spend nights editing but I do it anyway whyyy), what a behemoth! The main meat of the chapter did get finished, if anything. And finally, all sorts of canon characters! OCs? What are those? Pfft, these are all Hunter x Hunter characters! There isn't actually much to say; the first part of the first phase happened and it involved running. The thing is, running is boring lol The more I actually thought about it, the more I realized how boring the phase itself truthfully was. If it weren't for Gon and Killua getting to know each other and Kurapika and Leorio doing much of the same, the phase would have been a low point in the show, but the Hunter Exam is actually one of Hunter x Hunter's highs, this part included.

Though, since this was actually a merge between chapter 8 and 9, I had to delete all of my notes on chapter 8 but I thought it was a bit of a waste, so I'll go ahead and give a summarized version in about one paragraph: original chapter 8 was pretty much the beginning until Reimu and Marisa finally leave Hisoka behind (yaaaay), so I had a full essay on Hisoka's character posted that more or less illutrated that 1) Hisoka's characterization goes through different iterations between each anime version that either play him up as crazier or more collected, but the manga hits the balance I think suits the character the most by giving Hunter Exam Hisoka a sense of ruthlessness without going too overboard 2) it's very easy to make him out to be some mastermind, but Hisoka's goals are notoriously simple and the manga reveals his thoughts rather liberally so I don't see the point in giving him a mysterious edge, thus the third person limited on him in this chapter 3) notable personality traits in Hisoka include his nonchalance, hedonism and perception and rationality that can sometimes be at odds with his desires which appear to be his number one priority, though this is pretty much all the conflict he actually has. Beyond that, I noted that Hisoka and Marisa work surprisingly well off of each other despite everything and that some of the scenes I set up were so out-there I wanted to develop on them further, but I felt like they'd drag the story down if I did (no romance by the way I'll always stand by this). As for other scenes, I ended up thinking Reimu and Marisa confronting Tonpa directly would just be a repeat of every other Hunter x Hunter fic so I decided to just narrate his observations instead and leave it at that. Incidentally, the ending of chapter 8 was supposed to be in Hisoka's perspective to the very end and the start of chapter 9 was going to be Reimu and Marisa's perspective on the start of the exam. For the sake of being coherent, I went with chapter 9's start.

Anyway, I had to think a lot about what I could even do with the premise of a test where all Reimu and Marisa have to do is follow a path, particularly who they were going to talk to. My initial idea was that they'd get to the very front and pester Satotz, but I started thinking that wouldn't be the case because Satotz stated how the First Phase works so plainly and succintly that they wouldn't actually feel the need to go up to him. Then, I set my eyes on Hanzo, who was running at the very front the whole time. He's a fun guy; I like Hanzo. However, would that go anywhere in the story...? Additionally, while Hanzo is talkative, I wasn't sure if he'd actually talk to Reimu and Marisa because they're flying around. I mean, everybody thinks they have some sort of relationship with Hisoka, and on top of that, Hanzo's a ninja who went through all this training; I can't even be sure if flying would be all that strange to him, even if he himself doesn't fly. Besides, there aren't any grounds to assume Hanzo would approach them, as Hanzo only approaches other people seemingly when he finds the need to, while he talks to people who approach him openly, like Tonpa and whatnot. Most of the time, he'll actually be minding his own business. Another thing is that the Hunter applicants are very wary of each other, which is also why no other applicant openly commented or confronted Reimu and Marisa. But yeah, there would be no point overall to a conversation with Hanzo beyond writing the guy and I couldn't guarantee that it would happen, so I gave up on the idea.

Instead, I looked towards Killua. You'd think it would be less likely of Killua to approach Reimu and Marisa if talkative guy Hanzo didn't, but if you look through the series, Killua often starts conversations and gets involved with conversations at his own pace, whenever he wants (unless he's wary of you or the situation). Even when he and the other main characters are all together, he'll usually be the one saying his piece in between everyone's talking in a casual fashion. I think that if Killua were genuinely curious over something, and if he perceived you aren't a threat, he would go up to you. At that point in the exam, he thinks this is all way too easy for him and isn't scared of anything. As such, he went up to Reimu and Marisa; naturally, he did so when he perceived Hisoka wasn't around. His main aim was the flying broom (come on, he's a kid looking a flying broom; there's no way he wouldn't be interested), but he started kind of inwardly flipping his shit at Reimu and ended up trying to sort out their magic, instead.

My bias for him didn't let me think about it at first, but holy shit, Killua is _**very**_ difficult to write. Hisoka's nothing in comparison to this kid. At least Hisoka is all collected, you know? But Killua is complex and prone to acting both rationally and childishly. He's basically so good a character I have to think really hard about what to make him say. I don't really know what people like stressing about in Killua since I don't tend to have an interest in reading fanfiction starring Killua (most of it is romance and uh I'm not into that), but as far as I can see, he's a normal kid... Who happens to be an assassin. That's his whole thing. He would have been a perfectly normal kid if not for his environment. Because of said environment, Killua is a sort of mish-mash between normal kid and assassin, with assassin being the part he wants to reject most of all. In a way, this indicates he was the least affected by his environment in comparison to his family: he was able to retain his identity, but got influences regardless, which is amazing considering how he was raised. When you know this fundamental part of his character, it isn't odd that Killua takes an interest in Gon and befriends him really quickly: he found another kid, who he can see is more or less at his level, and he wants to get a friend and play around like a normal child. As such, that's what he does.

He's also a huge straight man for most of Hunter x Hunter, which says a lot about how normal a kid he tends to be and how abnormal everybody is when the assassin kid is the most level-headed character. I didn't want Killua to freak out like a lunatic over Reimu and Marisa, but I did want him to be surprised and to logically think of the whys and hows of what's happening. This is also because of Hunter x Hunter's world: Nen isn't widespread, but there's stuff like magical beasts and it wouldn't surprise that many people if a magical object of sorts existed, in my view. I think it would be surprising to find a human just casually having magical abilities, but I also knew that it shouldn't be a sort of life-changing shock because of the fantasy elements incorporated to Hunter x Hunter's world, so I decided on Killua's reaction accordingly. I had to delete a lot of dialogue over this, though; it was that hard to write. Still, Killua is level-headed, rational and casual, but also mischievous. He tried getting on Marisa's good side at first, but started to figure he didn't really need it. The deleted dialogue I have is actually much more serious than the end result, but said end result is simply much smoother and better for the story; it just so happens it has Reimu thinking Marisa got a bf while she wasn't around hahaha (kill me). No romance, though. Seriously. Really.

Even Reimu had to apologize when she realized the misunderstanding lol Despite how wacky it seemed, it did have a purpose, pretty much in confirming to Killua that Reimu and Marisa weren't all that familiar with Hisoka. Not that Killua himself really cared about that. In terms of interactions, it just sort of seems like he works equally as well with both Reimu and Marisa? There's just that older woman side to them that kind of makes them talk a bit similarly to Killua. It sounds weird saying that about Touhou characters, but the manga sometimes has moments where Reimu and Marisa are being very explicitely feminine and I love it, just because it kind of comes out of the left field for me. They've always been feminine, yes, but they're also a bunch of badasses who exterminate youkai and solve incidents, but then they're bawing over some cute thing lol The contrast gets to me positively. They look very young, but Reimu and Marisa are actually in their twenties, perhaps over at their mid-twenties, who knows (then again ZUN recently stated Touhou runs on Sazae-san time so idk maybe they're still 14 or something lol)? It's kind of amazing thinking these two are older than Leorio, hahaha.

Speaking of Leorio, another reason why I couldn't just have Reimu and Marisa advance to the front was because I just knew that he would stop them. You might think he'd avoid that considering that Hisoka thing, but I don't think Leorio has it in him to overlook things he really wants to do or say just because it's dangerous. Leorio is the kind of guy who couldn't handle running away from Hisoka despite having been attacked and knowing fully well that he was beyond dangerous. Would that very same Leorio not speak to Reimu and Marisa? Despite the fact that he's supposed to be on the sleazy side, it's very clear Leorio is the main character in Hunter x Hunter with the highest sense of justice, outclassing even Kurapika and Gon. If he sees something that he thinks is plain wrong, he will fight for it, whatever it is. He ignores his sense of caution for what he believes is right, and he tries to see to it justice is served if he can. As such, Leorio ends up actually being one of the most morally upright characters in Hunter x Hunter despite his sleazy side, and I think that was the point. He was supposed to look like some ordinary, sleazy man without any particular qualities, only to be the most down-to-earth guy in the main cast. It's quite a shame he didn't have much relevance to the anime and most of the manga; at least the 1999 anime liked showing him doing things.

But anyway, Leorio kind of saved the crossover because he very straightforwardly made sure everybody in the main cast interacted with Reimu and Marisa early on, even if briefly. I actually thought he was going to be the hardest character to write, mostly because he's one of the most emotionally versatile and silliest, but he actually ended up being one of the easiest. I think it's because Leorio is down to earth and honest with himself at all times, so even if he can go all over the place emotionally, you can be more sure of what you're doing while writing him. Meanwhile, Killua is sly and calculating; he's multi-faceted, so you can think up various ways he would react to something. I didn't spend much time with Kurapika, so I didn't have to give him as much thought, but I also rather like Kurapika as a character. I'll probably talk more about that when I actually bother writing him a lot.

I don't know how Gon is considered by other people writing-wise beyond the fact that everybody thinks he's a good and adorable kid, but he's actually a bit challenging. I think the people who summarize Gon's behaviour as simply out of him being a kind person (not that he's not a good kid, I'm just saying that 'a good kid' is not all that Gon is) are perhaps being too simplistic in his characterization. Gon is a shounen main character who looks a lot like any other, but at his core, he is a wildly different person from dudes like Naruto or Natsu or Luffy or whatnot. It's not even because of how he is later on in the series, but instead because of how he's always been: socially aware. If you notice, he is good at interacting with people and smoothening conversations. A lot of times, he uses these emotional manipulation skills for what he perceives to be his friends' wellbeing, such as in the Phantom Troupe arc with Kurapika. This trait right here immediately sets him apart from all other shounen protagonists, and from a lot of characters in general. Gon doesn't like thinking too hard about the technical details of things, but he has a natural knack for people and emotions, to the point where most people endear themselves to Gon easily and Gon himself doesn't look like he's making that big an effort to be endeared to; it's just how he is. Gon is a straightforward kid with a lot of pride, who happens to be very good socially.

I could sit here and ramble about this kid for hours and hours, but I'll leave it at that as one of the facets in Gon that literally nobody talks about, and that I take great care in preserving because otherwise, you don't really have Gon; you just sort of have a nice kid. This is also why that scene went how it did with Gon and Killua. To be honest, I wondered if Killua would just try to escape or go up to them after Reimu and Marisa said all of that and everybody heard him, but the more I mulled over Killua, the more I started recalling the fact that this kid is very easily flustered, and anything remotely sweet gets to him hard if it's sincere. As such, I thought it went in line with Killua that he'd escape from the situation, and I equally thought it went in line with the general feel of Hunter x Hunter that everybody at first was just staring at him expectantly before he left and then Leorio tried to set things straight. Kurapika didn't do much because he usually doesn't; he likes minding his own business. In the end, canon kind of went full circle, but it's not like it wouldn't even if I didn't explicitely show it: if Gon and Killua were going to talk, they were going to start playing like a bunch of kids and canon would happen again.

I wasn't sure where I wanted to end this chapter: would a chapter just with Reimu and Marisa flying cut it? The second half was very much like that; I didn't have anything I could actually do with it. However, I HAD to do something with it because I had to show you that Reimu and Marisa were at the front and up to something, and also had to show them getting past the passageway. I more or less just got over every topic I felt pertinent to address, and in a way, the scene started to have some emotional weight, but I more than that just recall Reimu and Marisa high-fiving each other XD Reimu and Marisa are a pretty good duo, huh? They can be in any mood and do pretty much anything together. Even then, knowing the chapter would drag if I continued from outside the passageway, I ended it with a punchline and that's Chapter 8 for you; there's still a long way to go, indeed. Look forward to that?

 **Deleted Dialogue:**

*deleted because it was dragging on and on and wasn't very consistent with previous interactions*

Marisa: "Didn't think you'd actually know this city that well, but your reccommendations have been spot-on so far. How'd you manage that?"

Hisoka: "I travel around a lot."

Marisa: "... I gotta admit, you pissed me off at first, but you're actually not that bad now that I think about it. Except the part where you could be a potential serial killer. Speakin' of, do you smell like blood?"

Hisoka: "What do you mean?"

Marisa: "Guess I'd notice if you did; that was a stupid question. Then again, if you don't literally smell like blood, that means you're either injured or killed a lot of people. Think you could be injured anywhere, by the way?"

Hisoka: "Do I look injured?"

Marisa: "In the head, maybe."

Hisoka: "That's ironic, coming from you. You're more injured than I could ever be. Even in the head." (#rekt)

Marisa: "Yeesh, you're as brutal as you look. You gotta be a serial killer."

Hisoka: *chuckles* "Maybe you should watch your tongue, then. If you keep being so ill-mannered, you could be the next victim."

Marisa: "... Damn, because it's you, I can't even tell if you're bein' serious or not."

Hisoka: "You'll know when you see your life flashing before your eyes."

Marisa: "So I AM the next victim?!"


	10. Chapter 9

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - Omg you are absolutely forgiven and honestly have no need to feel bad or apologize in the slightest! Even if my upload schedule weren't as horrible as it is, you're still justified in being busy with real life or just not feeling like reviewing at all if you don't feel like it or know what to say. But yeah I'm always so late I don't even have the right to complain about this story's reviewers, who've been awesome and graciously patient so far. I normally ramble about this a lot in PMs, but I pretty much appreciate all reviews no matter how short or long or whatever they are and really sympathize with people who just sometimes don't have the time to write reviews, or little inspiration, so I don't really demand anything out of the people who read; just the fact that they read is awesome enough. I post fanfiction more or less because yes, but also for discussion purposes, so I'll just make anything people write into a conversation topic and be happy that way, hahaha. Though, I'm really sorry for the late reply! I had tons of fun with Hisoka on the last chapter, not gonna lie. I'm hoping this chapter can be worth the wait? And thank you very much for reviewing, as always!  
**

 **MichelleBlitzGir - Thank you very much! I'm trying my best so that it's worth reading for anyone who stumbles upon it! I hope it answers expectations throughout the future chapters!**

Since the last chapter, this story got 11 favorites and 11 followers, demonstrating only the saintly patient nature of the people awesome enough to read this. I'd further like to thank your support despite my non-existent schedule, though I'm rather sure this kind of 5 month pause is going to be exceptional, and chapters will probably be spread out in month or bi-monthly intervals. I'd like to apologize as well for the delay, which happened mostly because a bunch of that time was dedicated to finishing another project and frustrations with the editing phase of this chapter ='D I got to get my backlog on track, though, so everything's normal!

Anyway, enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

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 **Chapter 9: The Misty Path Disturbed by Bloodlust  
**

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While Reimu and Marisa had initially assumed they had no time to rest, it seemed as though Satotz was awaiting for the arrival of more applicants, which counted as a short break. However, as it would likely not yield them enough time to nap, Reimu and Marisa simply leaned against a wall near the edge of the tunnel's entrance, grimacing under the sheer sensation of the dark circles under their eyes. Their blurring sights were then assailed by vivid green closing in on their location, processing that as Gon's approaching figure after a few lazy blinks.

Though they had nothing against the boy, Reimu and Marisa did not find it in them to smile yet, and instead noted the exceedingly enthusiastic grin Gon was wearing in comparison to the weary situation. "Hey, Ms. Reimu!" Reimu blinked in mild surprise processing her name coming from someone she was not so familiar with, having seen the boy mostly in passing, but he continued as though determined, raising his fists to the air as a sign of his motivation. "Could you tell me how you can fly in the air like you did at the tunnel? I'm really curious about that!"

Marisa averted her gaze from Gon out of disappointment that he only had business with Reimu, while Reimu's tired eyes managed to widen by the slightest margin. "Huh? Is that all you came here for?" Gon eagerly nodded, his big eyes staring directly into Reimu's without a hint of hesitation. The straightforward stance led to vacant understanding from Reimu's part, and she frowned only due to the thought necessary to formulate an answer she had little attachment to. "It's just an ability I have. There's really no method to it. If I want to float, I do. Why did you ask?"

Gon smiled apprehensively as he pondered on Reimu's response, only to sheepishly scratch his head. "Well, I was actually hoping you could teach me how to fly, but I guess it wouldn't be that easy. Thanks for telling me anyway, though!" He had assumed once more the energetic presence he had exuded before getting his answer almost as if as a reassurance to Reimu, whose mind was visibly wandering far from even the thought of being upset over Gon's interjection.

Rather, ignoring the well-intentioned smile, she carelessly answered, "It wasn't anything special." Then, as she thought further on the interaction, her eyebrows furrowed more dramatically as she eyed Gon curiously. "Though, by the way, how did you know my name? I don't remember introducing myself to you." Gon had blinked as well as his first reaction, but his smile notably widened afterwards.

Gon gestured to Killua, who lazily waved at them from afar in return. He was standing closer to the tunnel's entrance, near Satotz who was staring off into the distance, and Killua's expression was an entirely casual frown, contrasting with Gon's excited response. "I heard about you from Killua!" Marisa, who shifted her gaze to Killua out of curiosity, waved back at Killua with a playful smirk, resulting in a narrowed gaze as retaliation from Killua before he saw Marisa trying to copy the needlessly cool glare with comical inaccuracy. While Marisa and Killua seemed to be haphazardly exchanging purposefully hideous faces in an attempt to outclass each other, Gon continued to speak: "But now that you mention it, you probably don't know me because we never actually met, huh? I'm Gon! Nice to meet you, Ms. Reimu!"

In light of Gon's purely cheerful expression, reinforced by a wide grin, Reimu smiled, amused by his child-like demeanor. "Gon, huh... I do faintly remember the man you were with calling you that; I'll try to keep it in mind, alright? Well, nice to meet you." For a brief few seconds, Reimu and Gon simply stared processing the introductions, but Gon looked towards the tunnel's entrance afterwards, as if distracted by it.

"They're not here yet, but I could introduce you to Kurapika and Leorio, too," Gon conversationally offered, only to frown worryingly. The stance appeared as a stark contrast with his previous to Reimu, and she crossed her arms, uncertain of what to expect out of the so far carefree boy. "I think you might have gotten a bad impression of them, but they're really nice people. It's just that we all heard you were dangerous, so they got worried." Gon's eyes pointedly met Reimu's when he uttered that, courageous enough not to be averted in face of negativity, while Reimu simply frowned before noting Marisa taking a step forward in order to assert herself.

"Wait, what?" Marisa uttered from the side. Meanwhile, finding that their competition had ended prematurely, Killua was finally approaching the three nonchalantly, with both of his hands on his pockets. "We just got here and we're already infamous? Why'd people assume that?" Marisa was grimacing, her gaze focused solely on Gon who had turned to her with lightly raised eyebrows, unprepared to dispense that knowledge.

"Isn't it obvious?" Killua conversely interjected with ease as he settled on standing next to Gon closest to Marisa, but his eyes lay on nothing in particular, and he was frowning neutrally. "It's because you were hanging around Hisoka. For example, I was told to get away from you because you could be just as dangerous as he is."

"That's what I was told, too," Gon tentatively added, "It's true that Hisoka does seem a little dangerous, but you and Ms. Reimu didn't give off the same vibe as him at all so I ended up getting confused, at the time." His frown deepened when he further thought of the situation, and he glanced towards the tunnel's exit in an attempt to note the amount of applicants in the area.

Meanwhile, Killua shrugged, smirking as he did so. "Well, not like I believed that, either," he said before pointing in Reimu and Marisa's general direction with no reservations. "Hisoka's one thing, but you two don't feel intimidating at all. Not even a little bit." He used that very same finger pointing at Reimu and Marisa to wave it side to side in a show of negation.

Marisa glanced at Reimu in bitter uncertainty. "Was that a compliment, or...?"

"I think we just got underestimated," Reimu promptly responded while crossing her arms, her gaze fixated on a cheeky-seeming Killua. "But putting that aside, it's at least true we aren't as blatantly dangerous as Hisoka. We really just know him by coincidence, too; I wasn't even expecting to see him here."

"Everybody already knows about that because of Killua, so don't worry," Gon lightly reassured while Killua looked to the side as though he had not caught ear of Gon's words. Then, confused, Gon frowned as he tilted his head to the side. "But now that we're talking about you at the exam site, I remember seeing Ms. Reimu jumping out of some door on Ms. Marisa's back. What was that?"

"Ya mean the backdoor?" Marisa questioned, looking briefly over her shoulder for the sake of emphasis. "It's the only thing connectin' this place with our homeland. We each have one, but if we're home, we can only use the other's door, so I had to stick around while Reimu was there."

Killua pensively hummed as he took in Marisa's words, while Gon's smile was widening in awe and curiosity. "So that's what it was," Killua flatly commented, seemingly disinterested. "Guess I shouldn't have expected any less from a bunch of witches."

"Not that I'm a witch," Reimu nonchalant added.

"And I'm an actual witch but I can't do any of that," Marisa supplied, "We had to get some outside help to set up these backdoors."

"So there's more of you out there?" Killua asked as though lightly horrified at the prospect of multiple Reimus and Marisas, though his voice was only faintly conveying mock surprise. Underneath it was a hint of true curiosity, which Killua himself had no interest in showing as openly as Gon was.

While Reimu and Marisa glared at Killua, Gon uttered, "Wow, you can also teleport home whenever you want? That's so great! I wish I had something like that, too! Do you think the person who got you those doors would give me one if I met them?"

Reimu and Marisa glanced each other's way, pondering on the almost unbelievable prospect. Ultimately, it was Marisa who uttered with a lopsided smile, "Can't say I know the answer to that one. We don't know her that well. Besides, the door only gets us home 'cause she's got another door leading there. In reality, the backdoors all get you to her place first, and this is all uncharted territory to her so I'm pretty sure there'd be no door to your home there."

"Basically," Gon softly started, as if too overwhelmed to act more imposing in face of Marisa's explanation, which he was taking with his head tilted to the side and vacant, blinking eyes, "It's not possible because...?"

"It's not possible because the doors don't teleport you home automatically," Killua answered, "They're meant to teleport you to their witch friend's home, instead. If she doesn't know the place you wanna go, there's no door for it. You got it now?"

Gon hummed pensively, and took care to nod to alert his acknowledgement. "I think so," he said, only to regain a faint smile, "but since it gathers all these places in her house, it still sounds really cool. I wonder how her house looks like: would it be all full of doors?"

"Oh, you have no idea," Reimu stated with a sudden, though mild increase in bitter fervor accompanying her reminiscing, "and it's really easy to get lost there, too. It's not like she puts any labels on the doors."

"Then each door is like a surprise," Gon concluded, and saw himself grinning as his fists were thrust forth on instinct. "That sounds so exciting! I sure wouldn't mind going there some time!"

Reimu grimaced. "It's just a bunch of doors," she asserted, blankly so, "Besides, if you went to a door leading to the Netherworld or something it would be really dangerous for you. Though, judging by what she told me, she didn't like the idea of letting foreigners into the doors so I doubt a time would come when you'd go there; I'm sorry." Reimu's expression had softened, realizing she had been disappointing the child in front of her to a considerable extent, even if she herself had no choice in the matter.

"Well, it would be rude if a stranger like me just barged into her house," Gon said so as to soothe the concern he had picked up from Reimu, though disappointment was veiled in his jovial voice. "It's okay, though! You didn't do anything wrong, so there's no need to apologize." Reimu smiled, inwardly remarking on the boy's polite nature.

"Wait, though," Killua interjected, "What do you mean, 'a door leading to the Netherworld'?" His eyebrows had wiggled in a lazy reproduction of his doubt, settling then on a furrowed position, staring directly at a casual Reimu as if to gauge how truthfully casual she was. "Are you just trying to scare Gon there?"

"Huh?" Reimu blinked, as if confused.

"They probably don't have a Netherworld over here," Marisa commented vacantly with a shrug, turning to Reimu and leaning to her side for a lackluster form of audible whispering.

"Oh," Reimu uttered as she placed a hand under her chin without noticing, "Well, I said it as if there would be one, but I wouldn't know if that door actually exists. I only used the backdoor to get home so far."

"The door's not the weird part here," Killua retorted, "You're talking as if there's a Netherworld you can just go to. You do know that's weird, right?"

"Maybe?" Reimu said as the first thing popping to mind.

"Then again, if there's no Netherworld, is there even a Hell here? So you don't even go to Heaven, either? Talk about livin' only once," Marisa commented with a frown of high discomfort, her vacant arm retreating near her chest defensively, against a potential chill down her spine from the thought.

Killua stared their way blankly, while Gon smiled. "Come on, Killua," he said, gesturing to Reimu and Marisa. "It could just be part of their religion."

"Ah, makes sense," Killua said while slowly nodding, though his frown was still remarkably nonchalant, "It's not like I have any proof it doesn't exist. So, you believe in gods and stuff?"

"I'm supposed to communicate with them, so it'd be weirder if I didn't," Reimu easily answered.

"You talk with gods, Ms. Reimu? That's so cool!"

"If they actually exist," Killua added to Gon's admiration before smirking cheekily, "You could just be crazy for all I know."

Reimu glanced at Marisa in confusion, and Marisa shrugged in turn. "Guess they don't have any gods here, either."

"By the way, what do gods usually tell you?" Gon asked.

"What they tell me? Well, it depends what I ask," Reimu answered as if dumbfounded by the curiosity Gon displayed, increasing the more she scrambled to remember the few moments she truly used her power as a shrine maiden, "and what kind of god it is."

"I remember one time Reimu found out where to go by askin' them," Marisa said with a grimace, "It's such a cheat."

His attention retained by the implications in Marisa's wording, Killua shifted his curious gaze to her and asked, "You can't talk to them?"

"Nope," Marisa responded, "I don't hear a thing. Still, I can't doubt what I see in front of me."

"Guess not all witches are the same," he concluded after humming in a casually pensive manner, seemingly uncaring of the matter. However, showing genuine confusion, Killua continued to speak with arched eyebrows: "What makes you sure it's gods you're interacting with, anyway? Couldn't it be any other supernatural entity claiming it's a god?" The moment he stopped speaking, Reimu and Marisa froze for the fewest of seconds.

"Uh..." Reimu and Marisa uttered at the same time, caught off-guard by the simple question.

"Well," Reimu started with an uneasy smile, "I don't know how you define it here, but where we come from, gods are clear because they... Um..."

"What kinda shrine maiden are you supposed to be?" Marisa retorted.

"Look, come on, they give blessings and cast curses depending on faith! Yeah, faith! Gods are all about faith, right? That's how we distinguish them!"

"Took ya long enough," Marisa said.

"You hesitated, too," Reimu countered, "Besides, there are many different kinds of gods out there! Even in Gensokyo, there are divine spirits and the eight million gods, and they already work differently in some ways; not to mention gods like that weird one I took out on the Dream World!"

"On the Dream World...?" Gon and Killua weakly questioned, uncertain of how to take their arguing.

"Looks like there's no Dream World here, either," Marisa whispered to Reimu with another shrug.

"I get the idea already," Reimu shot back.

"I don't really get it, but it sounds interesting!" Gon commented, "I didn't think there'd be so much detail just from talking about gods!"

"You believe in a Dream World, too, though?" Killua questioned, "Just how many places are there in your religion?"

"It's kinda supposed to be our reality," Marisa pointed out.

"The magic's already surreal enough," Killua off-handedly stated, only for a thin smile to surface, akin to a subtle smirk. "Still, it is interesting. How'd you get the magic in the first place? Did you have to do some sorta ritual?"

"It comes with the job for me," Reimu said, "I remember always having some powers, and then, after rampaging for a while, I learned how to fly and I had more control over my attacks, too, so there's not much to say about that."

Killua whistled as if mildly impressed. "Talk about talent," he remarked.

"No wonder you can't teach it to us," Gon added. "But what about you, Ms. Marisa?"

"Me?" Marisa questioned, pointing to herself as if for further confirmation.

"You were throwing magic stars around on your own, right? How'd you do that?" Killua asked.

"Ya mean this?" Marisa snapped her fingers, and from the sparks surged a shining star.

"Woah! It's so pretty," Gon commented in pure awe. "Hey, could you teach that to us? Could you?"

Marisa blinked in similar awe, staring at the two boys for a moment until a smile slowly grew on her features. "Hell yeah, I can!" she asserted with an accomplished grin, but it faltered after seconds of thought, leading Gon and Killua direct a confused gaze her way. "I mean, that's what I wanna say, but it takes a while to get to this level. You need training, and specific materials, too. You can't just do magic without actually doing the magic from what you can find, after all. Magic power's not something you can just develop by yourself."

"Aw," Gon uttered, "I was starting to get my hopes up there, but with the Hunter Exam going, there's no way I'd make it right now. Sucks for me, I guess."

Marisa and Reimu frowned as if saddened watching over the disappointed expression on Gon's face, considering the circumstances that led them to that point. While Marisa glanced at Reimu, Reimu's lips twitched, only to form a gentle smile after the fewest blinks. "How about this? You might not be able to do our magic, but there's always this," Reimu said as she took from her sleeve a single red paper charm and handed it to Gon, who grabbed it carefully as widened eyes scrutinized the paper. Finally, Marisa smiled along seeing the confusion in both the boys' faces: their eyes were solely on the paper charm given, as Gon ran his hand through the inked writing he could not comprehend. Killua simply looked over from the side, but gave up quicker on the effort to understand himself and instead turned to Reimu with a frown.

"What's that?" Killua asked, pointing at the paper Gon was moving about slowly, as if to check how it would react against the faint wind in the area. Reimu watched it, immobile despite Gon's growing speed in waving the paper charm, and did not hesitate to offer a playful kind of smile to Killua.

"It's a weapon," Reimu explained, gesturing to Gon. "Why don't you try throwing it?"

"This doesn't even bend...!" Gon commented with his hand grabbing the opposing ends of the paper, attempting to fold it in half without success, seeing instead his own arms tremble from the sheer force he was utilizing. "This must be really special paper!" He finally lifted his head from the paper in his hands, figuring it useless to apply more force to it. and directed his gaze to the mist obstructing a good perception of the path the applicants would next go. "Alright, I'll go find a target!"

"Right now? You wouldn't wanna lose sight of the examiner before the phase starts," Killua admonished while stretching a loose hand in front of Gon's path, forcing him to turn to him. "Let's try that out while we're running instead." Then, Killua looked towards Reimu again, smirking. "Think you could give us a few more of those, Reimu?"

"What, scared you'll miss the target?" Marisa taunted.

"No way," Killua asserted with a glare her way, only to cross his arms. "I just thought it was unfair you gave one to Gon and not to me. I wanna try out the magic paper, too."

"I'll just give you one more, then," Reimu said, only to remove a purple charm from what seemed to be one of her detached sleeves. She stared for a second to note which it was, as if she could understand what was written down, and handed it to Killua afterwards, bending slightly downwards to reach his height. "Like this one. Here you go."

"What's the difference between the purple one and the red one?" Gon asked, staring intently at the paper charm Killua had received.

Reimu hummed pensively as she weighed her options, and her already playful smile widened. "I could tell you, but I think you'd have more fun if you found out yourselves, no?"

Gon nodded. "Right! Thanks, Ms. Reimu."

"It was nothing," Reimu said with a casual wave of her hand, "Though, if you can, could you return those charms to me after you use them? I'll be using a lot of them for my entire journey, so I could use recycling at this point."

"We'll try!"

"Magical paper, huh," Killua uttered vacantly as he stared it over meticulously now that it was in his hands. With exceedingly narrowed eyes, he offered Reimu a smirk. "How deadly is it?"

"It's not lethal for humans and animals, but they still hurt," Reimu absent-mindedly explained, uncaring of the implications of his expression or his subtle attempt at stabbing through the paper with his fingernails, "so I suppose it's good enough to get someone's guard down."

"Guess that's as much as you can expect out of paper," Killua said in a half-disappointed tone, only to look up at Gon. "Gon, once we're back running, let's see who shoots down the target faster. And we gotta pick the same one, alright?"

"Got it! But wouldn't we risk hitting each other's paper if we did?"

"Not if you're good enough to avoid it," Killua cheekily retorted. "Or what, you can't even do that? We're gonna be constantly on the move, too, so it's be pretty lame if you just missed and lost your only paper."

"Oh, you're on!"

Reimu and Marisa smiled as if satisfied, while Marisa looked towards Reimu. "Not bad," she remarked as she hit Reimu's shoulder, and Reimu crossed her arms.

"It was the least I could do," Reimu said, though the pride in her voice betrayed the content of her words. Then, from the exit of the tunnel they had run through, a voice could be heard calling Gon's name. Gon and Killua immediately turned to it, and the two headed swiftly for the figures awaiting them.

"Kurapika, Leorio! You're finally here!" Gon exclaimed as he reached them, his energy greatly contrasting with his friends' fatigued states. From a single glance, let alone a moment of staring their way, it was easy to see the two were older than the children Reimu and Marisa had gotten to know, but they welcomed them with wholehearted smiles, even if strained from lack of energy. The one best masking that was the shorter, blond figure Marisa remember faintly being cautious in their presence, while the oldest-seeming of the group, his glasses somehow stable on his face tilted downwards, sweat dripping down his body, was still kneeled near the stairs, having only crawled slightly to get out of the exit's way.

Though Reimu and Marisa wanted to continue watching the scene, bored and wishing for a distracted, more and more applicants were arriving from the tunnel as if unfazed, some of them obstructing their line of sight. For a moment, they grimaced as they spotted Hisoka only now exiting the tunnel as one of such examples, his gaze cold and nonchalant, but the very presence he released was such that all applicants were distancing themselves from him, and the four they were observing, in turn. He seemed unfocused, and had seemingly not yet seen Reimu and Marisa. They found solace in at least that, and shifted their gazes back to Killua and Gon, who talked cheerfully with Leorio and Kurapika while waving the red paper charm around.

"I wasn't expectin' this many people to get through that horrible passageway," Marisa nonchalantly remarked before fixating her gaze on Gon since she had spotted him pointing in her direction. "Only that guy Gon was with looks like how any normal person would be after this kinda test."

Reimu cast her eyes on Leorio when Marisa said that, and nodded upon seeing him groggily standing from his kneeled position and grimacing under the fatigue. "Should we go over to them? It seems like it would be more interesting than if we ditched them again," Reimu suggested to Marisa, but she was locking eyes with Kurapika, who was staring at them intently.

"You're right about that," Marisa promptly responded before walking over to their location without hesitation, considerably faster than Reimu. "Heya!" Marisa showed a friendly grin as she approached the four, while Reimu headed for them at a calmer, slower pace. Her gaze had finally left, Kurapika, especially as he, too, had focused on Marisa due to her greeting. "Name's Marisa Kirisame; nice to meet ya." Then, Marisa gestured to Reimu, who glanced at Marisa in confusion for a brief moment. "And this is my friend, Reimu Hakurei."

As if unprepared for the introduction, Reimu grimaced. "Nice to meet you, I suppose."

"We've already met Killua and Gon, but we don't know all that much about you two," Marisa conversationally added, "Gon said he'd introduce us to you, though, so I guess we jumped the gun already by sayin' our names." She winked their way, while Reimu noted Killua glaring at them from the corner of his eye, as if suppressing an urge to cringe. She smiled at him, finding the childish behavior, amusing, but that only served to make Killua look away, as if disinterested in the reaction he was not looking for. Meanwhile, Marisa turned to Gon, who locking eyes with her expectantly. "So, how about you do the honors of introducin' them before they jump the gun on you?"

"Sure!" Gon promptly responded while raising a fisted hand in seemingly carefree motivation.

However, he was unable to speak further and faster than Satotz, whose voice echoed assertively through the area where all remaining applicants were gathered: "The Numere Wetlands, also known as the Swindlers Swamp. In order to reach the second phase of the exam, we must cross these wetlands." Naturally, from the moment Satotz had begun his explanation, all conversation had ceased, and all eyes were on him simultaneously, Reimu and Marisa's included; Gon, on the other hand, was frowning disappointingly at the turn of events. Satotz's back was turned to them, as he seemed to be staring intently at the scenery that had only revealed itself a moment ago, seeing as the mist surrounding it weakened considerably. The humidity of the location was more than noticeable, and the foliage more or less what Reimu and Marisa expected from a swamp. While Reimu's frown deepened when she noticed the area, Marisa was neutral to the development out of familiarity with similar environments. "However, this area is the habitat of rather bizarre animals, most of them shrewd and gluttonous man-eating creatures whose primary method of attaining their prey is pure deceit. You must be very careful," Satotz calmly stated before turning around to directly faced the Hunter applicants. The index finger of his right hand was raised as though to emphasize on an important point he was going to make, and his eyebrows had creased, attributing a more ominous edge to his usual expression. "If you let yourself be fooled by them, you will die."

Most applicants kept a tense silence, glancing at each other in a mix of doubt and anxiety, perhaps even fear. Gon and Killua, on the other hand, were remarkably collected in light of the explanation, while Kurapika seemed to only show himself further cautious of the surroundings he was analysing by himself. Meanwhile, Leorio scowled, feeling as though underestimated.

Reimu and Marisa, however, were smiling in an almost carefree fashion. As far as they were concerned, they could finally part ways with simply traversing a location. Now, they noted, was the true challenge.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The challenge had started almost moments after Reimu and Marisa had acknowledged it, with a trial they hardly bothered pondering upon. They were expecting to be deceived while heading towards the location of the second phase of the exam, but a shape-shifting animal had immediately proceeded to attempt to trick the applicants into following the wrong path, leading them to their deaths. Reimu and Marisa, indifferent to the ordeal, had proceeded to simply watch by then, only to be reminded of Hisoka's existence when he had solved the issue by killing the creature.

Now, Reimu and Marisa were running near Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio, all following Satotz and the top runners in the mound of Hunter applicants who stepped over the unstable ground with mild difficulty. While Killua seemed to be slowly distancing himself from the group from his normal running speed alone, though he was glancing behind him as if to monitor his friend, Gon was accommodating for Leorio and Kurapika's speed like Reimu and Marisa, but it was clear his pacing through the wetlands was nigh effortless in comparison to his companions'. His grin was especially out-of-place with the tense mood surrounding the applicants, and his excitement was more so as the four near him stared him down in a mix of curiosity and amusement. "Ms. Marisa already named herself and Ms. Reimu, but now that we're just running, it looks like I can finally get you two introduced!" He looked towards Leorio and Kurapika specifically, his gaze in such a way ardent Leorio awkwardly frowned and Kurapika could not help but wryly smile. "I bet you'll get along great!"

"You certainly seem motivated," Kurapika cautiously remarked, uncertain of how to appropriately word his thoughts in face of Gon's innocently positive mood, especially as he was not adverse to it. However, it appeared Gon was receptive of Kurapika's underlying emotions, as his expression softened considerably before he offered them a weaker smile.

"Well, I really just wanna make sure you don't worry over Ms. Reimu or Ms. Marisa again, especially when they're actually not bad people," Gon explained, "Besides, if everybody else is already wary of them, they really only have us left, right? They might as well have more people to talk to than Hisoka!"

Reimu and Marisa glanced at each other as they took in Gon's words, only to break into poorly-contained smiles. "Heh, oh you...! Ya think we'd be lonely without anybody else?" Noticing Marisa's cheeks were ever so slightly reddened, Leorio and Kurapika blankly stared at her as she chuckled halfheartedly, almost as if to hide her flattered state. She swiftly approached Gon and proceeded to wildly ruffle his hair, warranting light words of protest from Gon while he giggled in amusement. "No need to waste your time thinkin' about us! You should just be worryin' about having fun with the exam, ya hear me?"

Meanwhile, Reimu nodded along with a smirk on her face, though it was increasingly clear through her own unsubtle blush that she was entirely flustered over the situation. "Right? It's what you get for fussing over something that minor."

"I just couldn't help it, seriously...!" Gon flailed his arms about carelessly in an attempt to reach out to Marisa's single arm and stop it from its haphazard movement, but Marisa was relentless in her movement as she continued to chuckle in an almost far too friendly manner to consider normal. Even despite that, Gon was smiling sheepishly, unable to hide the fact that he enjoyed the positive attention.

"Hey, stop torturing Gon, you witch!" As if on cue, to save them from the hopelessness, Killua had shouted to Marisa, who had picked up on his voice immediately. She halted her movement and retracted her arm as she snapped her head in Killua's direction, taking in his resentful glare with a another wholehearted chuckle.

"Right, gotcha," Marisa uttered with a thumb up for Killua to see, while Gon was shaking his head as if it could adjust his original hairstyle. "Wouldn't wanna waste your time. Let Gon introduce us to these two before you go have fun, will ya?"

"Then actually hurry with it," Killua retorted before rolling his eyes when he saw Marisa wink, "I wanna stop running like a snail already."

"Hey, you saying we're slow?!"

"By the way, that's Leorio." Gon pointed to the taller man with the small, circular glasses with a simple smile, and Reimu and Marisa nodded collectively as they witnessed him blink in confusion by the mention of his name. He whipped his head to his side, towards Gon, Reimu and Marisa.

"Wait, you're introducing me right now?! I mean **—** Well, uh..." Leorio scratched the back of his head bashfully as he smiled in a strained fashion, as if self-conscious. "How's it going? Reimu and Marisa, was it?"

"And you're the guy who was saying stuff about us cheating," Reimu remarked with a smirk. "Whatever that fuss was about, you probably already learned your lesson since Gon and Killua were around to tell you off for me."

"Flying might as well be a life cheat," Leorio begrudgingly muttered in his unwillingness to admit defeat in the argument, while Marisa frowned.

"Not a cheat of the exam, though," Marisa said.

"Besides, they're running right now so it's not like they can't handle it," Gon supplied.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, they're not breaking rules, they're somehow able to fly in the sky," Leorio quickly listed with a bitter, off-handed tint in his voice, "The Hunter Exam sure attracts all kinds of special people."

"Also, the one next to Leorio's Kurapika!" Gon exclaimed with excitement as he shifted his pointed finger to the blond young man next to Leorio staring vacantly in face of the light-hearted mood. "We all met back at the preliminaries!"

"It's nice to meet you," Kurapika calmly uttered, as his gaze softened with thoughts of Gon's efforts. "Though, I suppose an apology is also in order. I thought I was above being influenced by mere rumors, but if my previous judgments of you were any reference, I still have a long way to go before I can truly take pride in that." He closed his eyes for a moment, almost as if to make sure his composure would remain, only to face Reimu and Marisa with the slightest frown. "With that in mind, I'm sorry for my misconceptions. I should have looked past your relation with Hisoka and observed you directly if I wanted to grasp your true nature."

"Huh..." Reimu stared at Kurapika pensively, unable to ease the slight confusion in her mind. "Well, apology accepted, I suppose. It's not like I cared all that much about something like that, you know?"

"Water under the bridge, as far as I can tell," Marisa added, "But I guess it's the feeling that counts, so I'll take it, too."

Despite the overly casual responses, which would normally come across as unexpected, Kurapika appeared unfazed as he nodded. "I assumed as much, but I hold certain standards for myself, you see," he explained while placing a hand to his chest, "If I didn't apologize, I would have been failing to meet my own standards, and that is something I would rather avoid at all costs."

In contrast with Kurapika's dignified claims, Reimu and Marisa stared at him absent-mindedly, finding in said claims nothing to be truthfully concerned with. _He's sure uptight for his age. He's not as young as Gon or Killua, sure, but he's pretty much a teenager,_ Marisa thought before she managed a wry smile, hoping to smoothen the conversation that she had assumed would come to a quick end if not for her contribution. "That's great and all, but Gon," Marisa called out as she faced the boy, who in turn shifted his attention to her out of curiosity. "Isn't Killua waiting for ya? How about you get over there before he starts sulkin' alone? We're done with the introductions, anyway."

Gon hummed thoughtfully as he weighed the factors required to provide Marisa with an answer. "I don't really wanna leave Leorio and Kurapika behind, but..." Gon looked towards Killua, who continued to run slightly distanced from the rest. "I guess there's no need to worry if you've got Ms. Reimu and Ms. Marisa around. You'll all be fine, right?"

"Of course we will!" Leorio proudly exclaimed, "Even if those two weren't here, we'd be just fine on our own! If you wanna worry about anybody, make it yourself!"

Gon could not help but giggle in light of Leorio's dependable stance. "Well, if you say so!" With that, Gon began to pick up his pace in an effort to reach Killua. He waved at the four he was distancing himself from, his smile unwavering. "Have fun together, alright?!"

"Will do!" Marisa shouted in response, though Gon was already facing Killua, dashing with him side-by-side. She and the three with her watched that in silence for a moment, musing on the situation, only for Marisa to turn to Leorio and Kurapika and catching Reimu do the same.

"By the way..." Leorio uttered in a remarkably low voice, belying a more tense mood. Kurapika noted the shift, but he had some idea as to what would spur him to be like that, while Reimu and Marisa had simultaneously frowned in confusion. "I know it's none of my business, but what's making you so desperate you'd take the Hunter Exam while injured? This exam's so hellish even people in full health can get killed in here, let alone someone with a broken arm. If it's nothing important, you should consider taking next year's exam."

"Huh?" Marisa uttered while blinking. "That's still a thing I gotta nagged about?"

"Long story short, it'd be riskier leaving Marisa alone to her vacation here and I can just protect her if push comes to shove so it's all sorted for now," Reimu clarified with a shrug, her narrowed gaze expressing nothing but pure boredom. "She did well enough on her own in the preliminaries, so I'm hoping she doesn't get in my way."

"Wait, though, what's this about a vacation? You mean you're taking the Hunter Exam for your vacation?" Leorio recoiled under the implications, his mouth twitching as if wanting to shift in more ways than a simple scowl. "What kinda leisure is that?!"

" _I_ have serious business to take care of with the exam," Reimu said before pointing towards Marisa. " _She's_ the one who's showing up for sightseeing."

"We're not plannin' on staying for long, so it's the only shot I have of checking the exam out, too," Marisa wryly supplied, and shook her head with a faint smile. "Wouldn't wanna turn back after I got this far."

Leorio grimaced, scrambling to find a comment for the bizarre circumstances, only for Kurapika to interject sympathetically, "They have special powers, Leorio. Though I do understand your concern, they very well may be able to fend themselves off without even needing physical attacks. You saw that paper Gon and Killua were given, didn't you?"

"I did, but..." Leorio muttered through gritted teeth.

"Are you still hung up over my arm?" Marisa curiously questioned after carelessly glancing towards her cast and frowning. "You sure are a worrywart."

"You're the one who's reckless!"

"Still, it's not like I'm gonna just keep going if it gets too dangerous," Marisa added in a matter of fact fashion, eyeing nothing in particular as she reminisced. "I talked to the green guy by the exam site and he told me I could spectate if I got permission from the chairman. Not that I'll try for it, but there's no way I can just leave Reimu behind when she's got all the cash, so I gotta be around even if I give up."

"If anything, couldn't you have just done that to begin with?" Reimu questioned.

"How do you even think you can get past the committee at all? You have powers, but they're Hunters, you know?" Leorio imposed as a question, leading to Reimu and Marisa offering intense looks of confusion the very moment they processed the question. He continued to grimace, adding: "They're the kind of people who usually deal with that supernatural stuff."

"They are? All the examiners are Hunters? You should've said so earlier!" Reimu shot back after dispelling the distraught hint in her widened eyes with sheer frustration belying her glare. "I just missed the chance to interrogate the examiner!"

"Hisoka totally knew that," Marisa remarked.

"That creep," Reimu cursed as she waved her weapon about, "I could be getting everything done much faster if he weren't playing games with me!"

"Well, you're the one who decided to get played by the guy," Marisa said.

"That's because I had a good feeling about leaving the tower! Oh, he'll get what's coming for him, though, just you wait!"

Meanwhile, Leorio and Kurapika stared their way blankly, and the two noticed in confusion. "What's up?" Marisa prodded, hoping to dispel the awkwardness.

"Nope, it's hopeless," Leorio stated grimly as a confirmation of a fact that Reimu and Marisa were unaware of, and they tilted their heads to the side as their quickest form of a response to the matter. "Are you two just crazy strong or do you just have no sense of danger?"

"Crazy strong," Reimu and Marisa uttered at the same time, both with a shrug.

Though, seeing a lack of reaction from Leorio, Reimu smirked, retorting, "What else?"

"I really shouldn't have worried about you, huh?" Leorio lowly remarked, as if lacking in even the motivation to speak at a normal volume.

"They certainly wouldn't be taking the Hunter Exam if they weren't confident in their abilities," Kurapika said, "whatever they happen to be." Kurapika looked to the side, now grimacing as he did so. "Though, even so, I'd be careful in your position: over-confidence can lead to your downfall."

When Marisa, Reimu, and Leorio followed Kurapika's gaze, they found themselves graced with the presence of a running Hisoka passing by the with a mask of apathy; though how fake it truthfully was in face of others was debatable still. Marisa nodded slowly, but intently. "Yeah, I can see what you mean with that," she said, "but I'm through with getting into danger nilly-willy. This time around, Reimu's doing all the dirty work for me. I'm just gonna watch."

"I was supposed to do all the work, anyway," Reimu retorted, facing Kurapika with a convicted gaze and frown, as if now truly considering the weight of her situation. Even so, Reimu's posture was still relaxed, easygoing, and she eventually smiled while speaking: "Besides, I'm not about to be fazed by things that get in my way when I've got my duties to attend to. I can't afford to have a downfall."

"All the more reason to exert caution, then," Kurapika said. "However, I'm starting to have a feeling this is simply the way you are. Either way, I hope you don't meet your downfall, myself."

"Not that they will since they're _crazy strong,_ " Leorio begrudgingly added.

"Well, their powers are decidedly an advantage over the other applicants," Kurapika said, "Since their mechanisms are unknown at large, their opponent will never be able to expect their next move. This means that conventional methods are unreliable before them."

"I mean, sure, but **—** "

A scream resounded from the front, rendering the four deathly silent in light of the raw, shrill sound of pain; the mark of an attack, perhaps a fatal wound. "The beasts already?" Marisa quietly questioned with her eyes locked onto the direction she had heard the scream from, and Reimu had grasped onto five paper charms as she surveyed the surrounding area.

"That came from the front, but they could be getting closer as we speak," Reimu said, only to break into a carefree smile, brandishing her paper charms between each finger. "I suppose this is as close as I'll get to youkai extermination."

"Youkai extermination..." Leorio muttered as if he were referring to a term of utmost importance, only to scowl. "The heck's a youkai?"

"Not what we got here, that's for sure," Marisa quickly said, her gaze set in the same direction Kurapika was looking, to her right. She grimaced, and the others mirrored her expression when they noticed the cleanly laid corpse, the blood and blank eyes being the only pieces of evidence to the death. From a distance, screams continued resound, but of a nature so faint they only added to the gruesome mood of the situation. "And if it were one of the beasts, they'd have at least left more traces on the body or taken it away to eat: the most we can see's the bleeding."

"Not only that," Kurapika uttered in vacant fashion, as if far away from the people beside him, "but this isn't the only victim." He pointed towards the horizon, forming a line of corpses spread out unnaturally. The four ran slowly, more than before, towards the eerie path being formed by the sacrifices of others, and the closer distance allowed them a better look at a few open wound indicative of a deep cut, some through even the skull. Kurapika did not endeavor to stretch an arm out for the imagery to illustrate his point, though the fact that none of the people around him appeared as affected mentally as one normally would was telling of their own experiences, and simply continued for an explanation: "The method is the same, for one. However, the culprit is clearly in movement as they kill the applicants, rather than possessing a deliberate strategy to fool the victims; unlike the beasts as described by the examiner himself, if I might add."

"In other words...?" Reimu muttered impatiently, looking around as if more concerned with presences that would be alive to oppose her than the dead near her.

"The killer's moving the same way the applicants are," Marisa concluded, "so it's also an applicant." Leorio turned to Marisa with widened eyes from shock, fists trembling as if holding back on a strong urge to speak, if only so Marisa could justify herself. "These beasts would wanna eat the bodies, defend its territory or have a place to hunt them, but not just keep moving and killing anything in its way."

"You mean there's a serial killer on the loose in this exam?!" Leorio immediately voiced, cutting through the last audible trace of the continuous deeds occurring on the horizon, but Marisa was somehow keeping the same grimace, as if expecting the reaction.

"He's always been on the loose," Marisa said, only to shift her gaze to the foliage ahead, "I'm bettin' it's Hisoka. He was already acting weird enough before the phase started, and the wounds remind me of the guy he did kill when he tried to kill me with his cards." Marisa's eyes narrowed, as she preferred thinking back on the images rather than to look towards them as examples. "Bleeding's showy but the wound isn't, small cuts..."

"What a massacre," Reimu idly commented as she directly witnessed the situation, less tense somehow as she assumed Marisa's logic to be correct. "You'd think with all the monsters lurking around the forests, no one would need to be killing the applicants."

"Wait, wait, wait, so he already tried to kill you, and killed somebody else while at it, but you were hanging out with him anyway?!" Leorio eyed Reimu and Marisa as though his eye sockets could empty themselves from the nonsense he noticed, and Reimu was the first to retaliate with a glare of her own.

"He's the one who butts in on his own!"

"More importantly, assuming this is Hisoka, he could easily get farther to the front with his speed and reach Gon and Killua," Kurapika said, interrupting the possible argument, "They could be in danger." He locked eyes with Reimu then, and the calm composure combined with his grimace was still effective in conveying what all were sure to be his concern for the situation. "Reimu, how effective is the paper you've given them?"

"The paper charms?" Reimu almost as if bit her thumb bitterly mulling over the topic, giving serious consideration to the hypothesis Kurapika proposed. "They're only two, so I doubt they could stun Hisoka for long, and that's really as much as they could do to him. Depending on how fast they are, they could also miss."

"As I expected, then," Kurapika stated, "If so, we should catch up to them, or warn them somehow." Despite his words, it took only a glance at Leorio for Kurapika to close his eyes as if holding back the urge to sigh.

"How are we gonna warn them if they're already so far away?! The only way's to get to them, and we can't just let them fall victims to that maniac! I've gotta...!" The sounds of Leorio's feet hitting the ground forcefully intensified, and he was able to advance ever so slightly, only to return to his normal pace while panting heavily. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! The tunnel's already tired me out enough; I can't speed up at all! But if I don't, Gon's toast!"

"Even if one of us were able to outclass our current speeds and reach Gon, we could still be too late because Hisoka's moving as we speak." Kurapika then faced Reimu and Marisa, whose conviction was reflected in their focused gazes. While Kurapika was admittedly agitated, unable to hide a small part of the panic that came with the prospect of Gon being attacked, Reimu and Marisa seemed to have exchanged said fear for sheer determination and willpower to act, something that brought slight hope to Kurapika. "Our only option is to rely on Reimu and Marisa: their flight is much faster than Hisoka's current running pace, so the chances of catching him before he can hurt Gon are higher."

"I'll go, then," Reimu immediately asserted before Kurapika's intent gaze, able to smile regardless of it. "Marisa's faster, but I'm the only one who could possibly stand a chance against Hisoka! Just leave it to me!" With that, her feet began to float and she slew forward with a single thrust of her body, with a speed to the point Reimu was already hard to spot from the thick mist that surrounded Marisa, Leorio and Kurapika.

"Hey, you better be careful out there! Don't go picking fights you can't win, you hear me?!" Leorio shouted out into the mist, but there was no response. Only the faint shadows of the hunter applicants running ahead could be seen, while Reimu was presumably too far away to hear Leorio. As such, he turned to Marisa with a wry frown. "He said you were the faster one, but she's pretty fast, herself. How can she just fly in the air, anyway?"

"It's her ability," Marisa plainly responded. "If she wants to float away from something, she does."

"No wonder Killua calls you witches," Leorio remarked with just as much apparent apathy, but his was out of lacking the energy to give a retort fitting of the grand dimension of what he was witnessing, especially considering his grim surroundings. "If I weren't seeing it with my own two eyes, I'd be questioning your sanity."

"I can't help but agree with that," Kurapika interjected, "I won't press you for details, but I must at least say you two are one of a kind in various senses."

"That doesn't sound a whole lot like a compliment..." Marisa bitterly muttered, as if uncertain whether to be angry or not in face of the conversation.

"It's an observation," Kurapika clarified. "Either way, we are in some debt to your otherwordly abilities. If not for Reimu, we wouldn't have a means to assure Gon and Killua's safety. I only hope she doesn't have to face Hisoka directly..." Kurapika's wistful gaze rested on the horizon, focusing more on the prospect of Reimu than on the ground indicative of nothing but negative outcomes. Said outcomes were fresh in the minds of all three, and they originated the silence in the conversation for a few seconds, as Leorio and Marisa were just as well reminded of their surroundings.

"Yeah..." Leorio finally muttered back, but he himself was aware of the fact that his input was more than lacking in the multitude of words he could have chosen to describe or add to the situation.

"If it's Reimu, she'll make it through," Marisa, however, suddenly stated, her expression remarkably cold, perhaps uncharacteristically so. Even so, despite the odds, she mustered a smile, though a wry one. "Don't ask me how, but she'll do it."

"That better not be just a bluff," Leorio slowly countered, the rough phrasing masking the concern in his gaze. "I'm only counting on her to keep them safe because I can't do it myself." Marisa nodded, acknowledging the weight behind Leorio's words, each one of them genuine.

"I'll even bet you on it," Marisa said, her smile widening. "No need to worry about her."

While Leorio continued to speak to Marisa about how he was relying on Marisa's judgment and Reimu's capabilities, Kurapika snuck at glance at Marisa, whose stance remained strangely calm; it was not a facade. That fact was etched onto Kurapika's mind, serving as a factor from which he was deriving deep thought. _I can see now why they were speaking with Hisoka before. They don't truly fear him; they don't see him as a threat to begin with. However, if they're to the point Hisoka is not even worth their fear anymore, just what kind of people are Reimu and Marisa...?_

In the end, Kurapika could not see a conclusion to that train of thought. As such, he shifted his focus to inwardly wishing for Gon and Killua's safety, hoping that Reimu would live up to the expectations Marisa was so readily placing upon them.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Out of my way, already!" Five needles flew for the flowery back of the large monster in front of Reimu while she floated over it with a scowl on her face, uncaring of the injuries she had inflicted on it. She was currently leaving five other applicants behind, though she assumed they were capable enough to face a creature that was already incapacitated, and she only meant to make sure it would not shoot the strange gases it was showering the other applicants with at her.

She attempted to make out her surroundings, but only the whiteness of the mist prevailed. Figures resembling trees would faintly surface, and some running figures could be spotted in the horizon, but Reimu was already starting to learn she could not trust what the naked eye would show her. Almost as if to confirm it, Reimu closed her eyes and sighed before conjuring a ball of light of moderate size. In the blink of an eye, it was shot towards the running figures, but the screams that ensued from the attack were not human, but of voices reaching the screeching highs of some sort of creature Reimu was not familiar with.

"Now it's not boring, but I didn't want it to be troublesome," Reimu sourly muttered as she surveyed the area from above in hopes of finding real people. "Besides, at this rate, Hisoka will have reached Gon and Killua without a hassle..." _In times like these, I could ask divine spirits to help me, but I can't feel any of that from this weird dimension; just Nen everywhere. This place feels almost eerily godless..._ Her glare settled on her right, where a breeze had coursed by her. In that direction as well was nothing more than mist covering tall trees, so Reimu decided simply fly up, to watch for the wetlands from above. She exited the path, seeing only the top of the trees faintly, and while the mist did end before the trees themselves, the forest covered some of the ground she wanted to see, and she looked around her, failing to find other people in the midst of the mist.

Reimu grimaced, flying further forward as if to confirm the failure of her idea, and was disappointed with the prospect of having to lower herself back without a clue as to Gon and Killua's whereabouts, frowning thinly. She edged herself further to the trees, thinking of landing on a branch which could give her more of a perception of the ground and from a safer distance, but the mist was still obstructive, and Reimu was figuring it would affect her even if she were on a high enough branch that the mist did not reach her, but the rest of the wetlands below.

"Watch out!" Reimu blinked, only to propel herself back noting the tree she was approaching as a reference point to land twitch as if about to move. However, that was not the origin of the voice she heard. As she avoided a branch swinging her way, intending to catch her with what seemed to be claws hidden between makeshift leaves, a projectile that was not her own flew for it, causing the beast to falter. Reimu looked around with the time offered by the created opening, and eyed the first human-seeming figure she could spot near the beast disguised as a tree. Nearby was the examiner, along with similarly fast applicants simply passing by; Reimu grimaced. _Did I overshoot it when I decided to look from above? What a bother._ "You alright over there?!" The young man who had warned her asked from afar, while Reimu flew closer to the beast, paper charm in hand.

She saw what appeared to be a kunai lodged onto the branch hit, and a swift attempt from the beast to hit her with another of the branch, constituting as multiple arms within a body that on closer inspection was far from being as hard as wood. Reimu swiftly floated above the branch, pressing then a paper charm of a bigger size than the rest towards what she identified as the middle of small, equally as brown eyes of the creature. While she was doing that, two branches were heading her way, and though the young man on the base of the tree was preparing more projectiles of his own, Reimu flew away, reaching the branch with the kunai and removed the kunai from the beach, who finally screamed in agony, caring in little measure about its disguise. The paper charm took effect afterwards, petrifying the animal under the shock of the spiritual energy contained in the charm spreading through the body, and it fell unceremoniously towards a real tree, which collapsed as well under the animal's weight. Reimu was uncertain if it remained alive considering it was a different species from a youkai, but she brushed off the fact by turning away from the body and throwing the kunai back at the applicant with the red scarf who was blinking in awe watching her.

He had swiftly caught the thrown kunai, even though Reimu was aiming for the ground, and as she landed near him, she saw his eyes narrowed as he processed her presence. "Now we're even," Reimu affirmed with a carefree smile, "not that I needed any help." She glanced the animal's way, the effect of the charm having still not worn off, and crossed her arms. "Aren't you going to keep running? You just lost the examiner."

The bald young man flinched in face of the truthful statement, looking back only to note a staggering lack of applicants in the area. "W-well, I can still catch up to them by myself," he stated, though the smirk on his features was ever so slightly apprehensive, as though he was caught off-guard. "More importantly, I'm thankful you retrieved the kunai, but I didn't know you were there until you started closing in on the beast; I don't exactly keep track of flying presences thinking they're human."

"You didn't notice me?" Reimu questioned with arched eyebrows, "Then who were you calling out to?"

"It was this female applicant carrying a small backpack," he explained, "You see, I was watching all applicants from the corner of my eye, keeping a distance close enough to assess whether I'm near the real examiner and far enough to observe anyone in case they try anything against me. Then, she happened to be struggling to catch up with the frontliners, coming near my position, and she looked like she was going to rest near the tree for a moment before catching up again, so I of course made sure to keep watch on her just in case, but since she didn't even notice she was going to lean on an animal in disguise, I figured she couldn't possibly disarm me and decided I could at least neutralize the animal before catching up, myself. Besides, there was always the chance the animal could give chase, and considering I was also closest to the creature, it was convenient to take care of the matter, so I was practically expecting her to leave me behind, as she should if she knows she's taking the exam. But then again, I didn't think she'd go about it so fast, since she couldn't even stick around to answer..."

Reimu was naturally frowning as she realized the fact that the man was going to continue on speaking, but an opening to leave had arose then when she felt a presence very similar to her own; the kind of spiritual power that would only be conjured out of her amulets. It was faint, and disappeared quickly, but the fact that it was nearby was a good enough revelation for Reimu to simply charge away flying, turning her back to the young man talking to her as she attempted to follow the trail of a moving presence that had already dissipated. "And **—** Wait, where are you going?! I was still talking to you!" Disregarding the young man shouting behind her, Reimu was certain it would only be lightly telling of their exact position, but that was a concern void in her mind, and she smiled as though determined, praising herself for giving the paper charms to Gon and Killua, even if she did not plan for them to have such a convenient use.

 _Just you wait,_ Reimu thought as she advanced farther from the examiner, noting other applicants attempting to catch up to her side, _I'm coming for you, Gon; Killua...!_

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Meanwhile, on a mound of aggregated bushes, some of which intersected by thick tree roots, Gon and Killua were standing idly in light of the position of the animal they had apprehended with their paper charms. Said animal had been a bird similar to those the two had seen eating the corpse of the examiner's impersonator the moment he had shown no signs of life, but the similar form was only a disguise constructed by a considerable inflation of feathers that fell off the immediate moment the paper charms were closing in on it, revealing a much smaller target quickly attempting its escape. Curiosity for where the paper charms were being led, particularly Killua's homing purple variant resulted in the decision to take a small detour, in which they found its small body twitching from the paralysing effect of Killua's paper charm which had inevitably hit the bird, while Gon's had been thrown unaware of the animal's true size.

"No fair! Yours was chasing the target by itself!" Gon exclaimed precisely in protest of the unfair advantage, moments after Killua had loosely removed his paper charm from the bird at Reimu's request and the two had witnessed it fly away disoriented. Killua was only lightly glancing at the paper while regarding Gon curiously, as if uncertain of what could possibly originate his opposition.

"Hey, if you're gonna blame anyone, blame Reimu for giving me the superior magic paper," Killua countered with a smirk as he casually waved the paper around, the writing on it having somehow dissipated with the energy charge on the target. "Doesn't change the fact I won, though."

"Yeah, because the paper got to chase the bird when it changed shapes all sneaky-like! I want a rematch!" Gon said after pouting, only to crouch down to the bushes, touching through small branches of the bushes in his surroundings. "After we find my paper, we're doing it again!" His focused gaze, clear with determination only reinforced the weight behind the affirmation, which Killua verified in contrasting simplicity by tilting his body aside, getting a glimpse of Gon feeling for the paper charm within the bushes.

"Do you even know if you can use them again? Mine's all crumpled now." Killua dangled the purple paper charm near the left of Gon's face, enough that it was caught by the corner of Gon's eye. "Doesn't look like it's got juice left in it at all; can't have much of a rematch with that."

Gon shifted his gaze to Killua, his expression of conviction intact. "Well, we can just get Ms. Reimu to fix them up for us!" he offered and turned back to the bushes immediately afterwards as though that were a main priority, leaving Killua's expression of doubt unseen by the boy.

Eyebrows furrowed just as much from displeasure, Killua grimaced before retorting, "What, from back in the path? We're already gonna stall enough trying to find the paper 'cause you wanna act the goody two shoes for Reimu, but we're not about to backtrack." Killua straightened his standing position, looking back towards the path from which they had momentarily left the examiner behind in the same way one would roll their eyes. "Did you forget you're taking the Hunter Exam right now?"

Gon flinched, his concentrated determination broken for a moment of small reflection. "I-I mean..." Gon scratched the back of his head, smiling sheepishly before saying in a slightly less imposing tone of voice, "I guess we can ask for that after we're done with the phase." Then, his smile seemingly stabilized, assuming a gentle, lacking edge that was only slightly mismatched to the intense nature of his gaze. "But we _are_ getting the paper back for Ms. Reimu. It's the least we can do for her when she went out of her way to give them to us."

"You sure are fussy," Killua remarked with a frown while pocketing the paper charm haphazardly before resting his head over his hands positioned behind him, showing his complete lack of an intention to help Gon. "She just gave us the stuff so we'd settle for less than getting taught how their witch magic works. She probably has way cooler things on her arsenal that she didn't wanna give us."

"That's not what matters," Gon countered easily, though also in an absent-minded manner, "Ms. Reimu was trying to do what she could to make me experience what it is to do her magic because she could tell I really wanted to try. It's only fair I pay her back when she went out of her way, and she even asked. She probably has something even bigger than the Hunter Exam going on, but she managed to spare us this, too." Gon's smile widened, albeit subconsciously, but Killua only noted the detail that could imply from the rising softness and pitch in his voice, cheerful to a fault. "Besides, it was fun trying to get the target, wasn't it? It's thanks to her."

 _He's sure something else,_ was the first thought on Killua's mind upon a quick examination of his logic and stance, and his gaze was clouded with thought that derived more than confusion; curiosity, interest, even. And Killua stayed, standing as if dissatisfied staring at the boy his age uncaring of the small scratches created by brushing against the bushes' thorns. "Geez, I get it," Killua uttered flatly, though his raised eyebrows indicated the fact that it was nothing but a half truth, "What do you think I'm here for? Not only that..." However, distracting Killua from the lighter moment was a sound reaching ever closer to their area, and a kind of tension achieved only through forced silence in the wetlands. He glanced back, a grimace surfacing on his pale features complementing the coldness his eyes were exuding as he carefully examined the direction he was focusing on. He quietly, coolly specified: "But there's something off about the path to the examiner right now. Killing intent. You'd think Hisoka would be by the back, so who's..."

"Oh, found it!" Gon suddenly stood from his position, raising his right arm to the highest height in order to display the spoils of his venture: a red paper charm devoid of its scriptures, slightly torn at the edges. Killua was not yet noticing his expression, but he was smiling, content despite the fact that the paper was leaning aside, depicting its powerless state. "It's all crumpled, too, so I don't think I can throw it again, but it's in good enough condition I can hand it back to Ms. Reimu." Then, noticing Killua's attention taken by other matters, Gon's smile faded, and he blinked, curious. "Anyway, you were saying...?"

For a full second, Killua's gaze was still locked to the horizon, but he then turned slowly back to Gon, silently processing his question until he shrugged. "Whatever," he said, his position now relaxed as he gestured forward with only his head, tilted up. "If you finally got the paper, let's just catch up to the examiner. From this distance, I can still hear their footsteps so we're basically on track."

Gon hummed pensively before he started to run along with Killua on the same direction he was pointing towards. He was peering into Killua's expression, uncertain, resulting in a thin frown that accompanied sounds of an eerie nature. "Right," he stated as though assertive, but he looked around, scanning his surroundings with pointed confusion. "But, also, haven't you been hearing screams around? I wonder if Leorio and the others are alright..."

"Shouldn't they be?" Killua quickly responded, but his voice was distinctively vacant, "They've got magic on their side and all. One thing is Leorio and Kurapika, and another's Reimu and Marisa. So, even if they happen to get stuck with some weird animal, those two can cover for them."

"Well, they do make it more reliable, but I wouldn't think Leorio and Kurapika can't handle themselves," Gon said in return, frowning wryly in face of the implications of Killua's words, but his concern was further assailed with the distance accompanying Killua's gaze.

"Then there's no reason to worry," Killua summarized casually, "If they all pass, good; if they don't, it just means they weren't cut out for the exam."

"I would want them to pass, though— Killua?" Seeing Killua's expression shift from a neutral frown to a grimace of pure deathly apathy, Gon noted Killua's widening eyes and blinding speed as he ran away with a few blinks, only for Gon to quickly trace the direction Killua was headed; further into the left, away from what they were assuming to be the path the examiner was taking. Gon proceeded to go for his fastest speed in order to catch up with Killua, and found himself near a mound of trees near each other, with one tall enough it could harbor a person on its branches. Gon looked up, jumping swiftly upon the branches to witness Killua entirely concentrated on the horizon he was watching from one of the tallest branches; Gon regarded that with some awe as he climbed the rest of the tree, eyeing him curiously from behind. "Killua? Is something wrong?"

Killua shushed Gon hastily while shooting him a glare, turning quickly back to the horizon much to Gon's disappointment. He tilted his head to the side, attempting to see Killua's expression, but the most he could identify was his entirely immobile stance; a presence he did not want noticed. Gon frowned beyond the childish extent he had been previously upon considering the degree of caution that Killua's hidden self between the leaves exerted. He attempted a similar stance, and saw the slightest movement overcome Killua's position: his face moved centimeters to the side, as if due to the urge to look behind him due to the lacking presence he could now feel from Gon, but he stopped himself, continuing to gaze ahead. "It's Hisoka," Killua whispered, coldly, "I thought he was gonna fall behind, but he's going for the kill right here, right now. I can tell."

"Right now?" Gon asked quietly in confusion before he finally stared out from the branch, seeing part of the surroundings through the leaves. The distance from the ground had the slightest details smaller in comparison, but as Gon squinted, he could pick out what appeared to be white cards stuck to a tree, as if thrown in such a way they could pierce through wood despite their usual material. Gon blinked, his frown deepening as he registered the tree he was observing was one the two were almost going to pass by on foot, now meters away from their current position. The footsteps of the top runners were no longer verified, but Gon could understand from faint sounds in the distance that they were not alone, and that was equally applicable to the presence of other applicants, and their expressed agony. "Why?" It was the first thought that occurred to the boy as he processed the situation, relating what would normally be harmless playing cards in the context of Killua's ominous words, and confusion slipped readily through his firm voice.

It implied little fear despite everything, and the tone rang anxiously in Killua's ears. "Does it matter why? If he's targeting us, we'll get farther and farther away from the examiner," Killua lowly reprimanded, his eyes narrow, intent on tracing what could be a potential threat. Hearing a defined scream within the exceedingly faint sounds of footsteps, Killua continued matter of factly: "Luckily for you, if he's not around, it means he wasn't targeting you in the first place. You can hear the others, right? They're the real victims, so we've got a chance to get away without wasting our time." Gon saw Killua's head finally move more than the instinctive milimeter, surveying the trees surrounding the dense area. Some were short enough that the impact of jumping towards a branch from that height could break it entirely, but with enough care and utilizing a quick momentum not to stay on the branch and let it do so could perhaps give them a differing form of movement, but Killua was also attributing his attention to the ground afterwards.

In the middle of what Gon assumed to be his analysis of an escape route to return to the examiner, he could not help but ask as though unconvinced, grimacing, "But what about the others? If they're the victims, it's not like they did anything wrong, right? Then I don't understand why Hisoka would have to kill them." Against Gon's expectations, and as a motive to soften his expression momentarily, Killua turned to him, but his frown was lopsided as if from the weary prospect of having to offer an answer to Gon's doubt. How obvious the matter was to Killua was itself a point of doubt for Gon, and he blinked, wondering as well if Killua had confirmed whether he was safe enough to turn his back to the surroundings. The footsteps had suddenly ceased, and Gon was only vacantly connecting the dots.

"Look, it's not about 'having to kill' in this situation," Killua quickly explained in a hushed tone, bringing Gon's focus back to Killua himself, his words uttered as though ordinary trivia and a horror story combined were being conveyed, "It's about feeling like it. So, if anyone's in his way, he'll do it. For real. Got it now? That's just how it is." He glanced aside, to a prospective and familiar image of corpses he could imprint onto the surroundings not yet tainted by such deeds; though he knew that was not true for the furthest meters away from their hiding spot. Killua wryly smiled, perhaps even smirked, and added with the slightest hints of pride: "For him, and me, too."

"You, too?"

"We're similar, Hisoka and I," Killua said, "The only difference is that I do a better job of hiding it."

Gon pensively hummed, taking in the response in a surprisingly calm fashion. Even in Killua's perspective, Gon seemed undisturbed, albeit slightly uneasy; a strange reaction when it came to a revelation of that caliber. "I don't really see it, though..." Gon muttered, "You don't feel like Hisoka at all."

Unfazed, Killua shrugged, taking Gon's reasoning as nothing but an amusingly naive perspective. "Like I said, I'm just better at hiding it. You'll see what I mean eventually." Gon remained unconvinced, his grimace unwavering, but Killua was not seeing that as he looked back down to the ground. "Anyway, Hisoka's no joke." As if to match his own words, Killua frowned. "I mean, _I_ could manage something, but having you around would mean putting you in danger if I tried anything on him, so we gotta catch up with the examiner and make it to the second phase without being noticed by Hisoka on the way. You can jump through the trees, right?"

"Sure," Gon responded, "I'm pretty good at moving around in these kinds of places, so I don't think I'd get caught by Hisoka, either."

"Who wouldn't get caught by who, now?"

Killua froze in place, unable to flinch or twitch in reaction to the unfamiliar voice referring to Gon's statement from so far away in height. Regardless, the smooth voice they could identify, though deliberately louder than normal, reached them perfectly, almost too perfectly for it to belong to a normal person. Gon's eyes widened in shock as he saw a tall man look up at them from near the base of the tree, his presence having been lacking to both boys despite their attentiveness to their surroundings; his yellow eyes were visible from afar, glinting dangerously in their direction. "Is that a challenge, little boy? You should know better than to doubt the abilities of a magician." The man known as Hisoka smirked up at the two boys, relishing in their apprehension even from afar.

Killua stepped back in spite of himself, almost colliding with Gon, but he knew there was nothing behind him that could allow him to escape. More importantly, he noted, he could not simply escape by himself... Or could he? If he were to use Gon as a distraction, Killua could just as well make a run for it and reach the examiner somehow. "I don't wanna hear that from someone who's barging in on a conversation!" Gon countered before letting his tongue out and making a silly face, almost as if he were intent on provoking Hisoka. The ludicrous sight snapped Killua out of his thoughts, which he dismissed with a swift shake of his head.

"What're you provoking him for? Are you trying to get us into more trouble than we need here...?!" Killua argued in a hushed voice, glaring Gon's way relentlessly. At that, Gon grimaced, unable to respond to Killua in kind due to his confusion over said response. "One wrong move and you're dead. You got me?"

"If you say so..." _How can he be unconvinced by that?!_ Killua thought upon hearing Gon so vacantly mutter that as his reaction to Killua's warning, only to shake his head again in order to focus. _But more importantly, if Hisoka decides to climb this tree or bring us down from here, we're screwed. Reasoning with him isn't an option either; he's itching to kill. At this point, we could use a distraction, or a sure-fire way to escape, but there's nothing we can use to hold Hisoka down because we already spent Reimu's paper. Then our only option is a distraction..._

Meanwhile, Hisoka chuckled as he processed Gon's behaviour. "Such an interesting duo," he commented. "Did you climb that tree in order to escape from me? Running away was a wise decision, but the method wasn't very effective, to be honest. You've not only lost track of the examiner, but you've also cornered yourselves." _Not that running would have let you live much longer,_ Hisoka thought, _They probably figured I hadn't noticed them and decided to hide to make sure I wouldn't spot them. Though, considering the spot, they must've also accounted for a chance I would be here and knew to pick somewhere I'd likely be adverse to reaching. Such crafty children..._

Killua mustered a smile, albeit one with a bitter edge as he stepped past Gon. "Well, we didn't think you'd bother with two random kids on a tree," he retorted in a pseudo-nonchalant fashion, hands hidden in his pockets. His skateboard remained under his shoulder, and Killua's gaze was blank as his mind was clearly elsewhere. "Don't you have easier targets to play with?"

"I've been getting bored of those, you see," Hisoka immediately responded, noting that Gon was glaring at him, contrasting with Killua's careful approach. "When I noticed a _familiar_ kind of presence where you are, I figured you'd be just the right fit for my current mood. The only problem I have is whether it would be more fun to come for you, or to have you come for me. Just for reference, which one would you prefer?"

 _If I try something the least bit shady, Hisoka'll attack for sure; I won't have the upper hand if I make the distraction too obvious. This can't become a full-blown fight, but we'll probably need to make it seem like we want to fight him because we're out of options and get his guard down,_ Killua thought, having paid no mind to Hisoka's words as he had only intended on buying time with his own approach. _He's strong and he knows it. If he becomes confident he can take us down, we can use that opening to plan an escape. Still, which one of us should take the risk? I've got higher chances of coming out of a fight with him unscathed, but I'm also the best person to devise our escape. Could Gon hold his own just enough that I can get us out of this area?_ Killua glanced towards Gon, and saw in his gaze an unwavering sort of conviction he did not share. _Well, if he can't, that'll be his problem. I'm not about to get held back._ The conclusion was telling of his lack of faith, but from Gon's twitching fists, and the illusion of a smile, genuine despite the situation, Killua could not exactly predict his reaction, and as such decided to focus back on Hisoka.

"That's so obvious you didn't even need to ask," Gon countered for Killua then, before he could open his own mouth, causing an abrupt contortion of his facade due to unease. _What's he doing? What's he planning? Is he even planning something at all?_ While Killua's eyes were wide from Gon's abrupt statement, Gon seemed to speak with a resolute gaze, his voice clear and lacking in hesitation. It was almost as if he were trying to hold his ground against Hisoka, the reaction equivalent to staying in place to face an animal rather than triggering its predatory instincts by cowering away. Upon noting that, Killua blinked, wondering if there truly was more to his actions than pure whims. Even as Gon began to run on the branch, passing by Killua with ease, Killua frowned half-heartedly, in a mix of awe and disbelief as he processed the full extent of his actions. Gon jumped from the tree all the while grabbing at the fishing rod behind him, stored in a side pocket of his bag that was far too short to truthfully accommodate its full size. Regardless, it effortlessly slipped from the pocket, and when both hands grasped it, Gon exclaimed, "We don't have time to deal with someone like you in the middle of the exam, so we're putting this to an end ourselves!"

 _I didn't even tell him to, but he ended up following my plan anyway,_ Killua thought before following Gon, jumping out of the branch seemingly without hesitation. _The reasoning is different, but it's sound: buying any more time would just get us farther from the examiner. Guess I shouldn't have expected any less from him. I'll get us out of here, Gon. Just you wait._ Killua surveyed the area mid-air: trees encased the small space they had to face Hisoka, its ground mostly filled with roots belonging to them; it was not a particularly optimal battleground, as far as Killua could discern. However, it was also not the best for Hisoka, and that was a bonus in his eyes. Due to the lacking space, ranged attacks were not recommended, so it would be easy to force Hisoka, who had only been seen throwing playing cards so far, into close quarters combat. Furthermore, Gon seemed agile, especially as he landed on the ground and proceeded to immediately roll to the side before running around Hisoka, gauging his reaction time.

They had a chance, Killua noted. With a smirk, he cast his eyes on Hisoka, who appeared to be snickering in face of Gon's efforts. "How nice," Hisoka remarked in an almost longing voice, "I've always liked that sort of stance. Such a captivating look..." In Hisoka's hand was a single card, which he threw at blinding speeds, to Gon and Killua's surprise. The card landed precisely in front of Gon, almost deliberately so, and had him halt his movement with an apprehensive frown.

"Watch out, Gon!" Killua's voice was enough for Gon to jump back and swing his fishing rod sideways, letting the line course through his left and ward Hisoka off of the very opening he had made. Unfazed, Hisoka saw that Killua was approaching him just as he was running for Gon, attempting to get to Gon's front without regard for the fishing line. He could still see Killua's slowly approaching figure from the corner of his eye, weighed down by the skateboard under his shoulder, but it was no threat before his own speed, enough that Gon could not yet recognize he was on the verge of coming into contact with Hisoka's right hand as it swooped down mercilessly for his throat. Gon's tactic had already been set up implying his own speed in swinging the rod would be enough to force Hisoka back, adding to the surprise that Hisoka was able to simply approach without stop or hesitation; as if he could have predicted Gon's capabilities beforehand, in but a look.

However, the corner of Hisoka's right eye spotted something rather curious flying in his direction when his fingernails were brushing against the boy's soft skin: an equally as quick throw of a skateboard towards him, supported if only by the physical talent of the other one nearby. Gon, who had earned seconds of reaction time needed to process Hisoka's actions by the fact that his face had turned slightly to regard the object being thrown in his direction, moved again for a swing of the fishing rod as Hisoka stepped back, deliberately so in the precise moment the skateboard was less than a second away from colliding with his face. Moreover, he had been taking something from his pocket the very moment he had released the skateboard, and his hand, holding a single card, twitched with overflowing interest. Though the color was different, he was immediately able to recognize the piece of paper as one of Reimu's belongings, if only because she was going to use them against him in Heavens Arena; a time he would hardly forget.

Hisoka's hand was raised abruptly, resulting in a vertical cut through the presence he had felt nearly connecting with his left cheek. He only spared it a glance because he expected the sensation of something akin to a thread, but was met instead with the hard surface of the skateboard connected to the fishing rod's hook, likely caught skilfully mid-swing for a more elaborate plan to incapacitate him. Hisoka glanced back to Killua, as his speed was dramatically higher now that he was simply charging with an object Hisoka had little knowledge on. Though, one detail was strange, in his perspective: the paper emptied of any scriptures, it also swayed with the wind provided by the speed Killua was dashing at; it was different from what he had also seen previously on the tunnel's exit. He stepped back again, letting Killua need to change trajectory and Gon's aim to be changed by another swing of the fishing rod, but he curiously noticed there was no Gon where he had previously positioned him in his mind. Hisoka saw Killua pass by him with a smirk, strained though it was, but it was indicative of confidence; his smile widened. "I won't let you escape," Hisoka uttered, his stance effortlessly calm as he looked further to the left and began to run as well, without paying mind to Killua. In fact, he threw a single card in Killua's direction, forcing him to slow down in order to dodge, to stop accompanying Hisoka's pace; almost as if to get him away from his sole target. "And I mean you **—** " Hisoka looked upwards, towards the trees, from which Gon alone had gained a head-start constructed by Killua, who undoubtedly was confident enough in his own speed to escape. _"Gon."_

 _Was Gon his only target all along?_ Killua scowled in light of the thought, his eyes wide from not only surprise, but agitation he could not quite comprehend. Part of Killua urged him to run and easily save himself any trouble, but he simply stood as if frozen, considering all that led him to that point with an unstable, twitching gaze of surprise. _The way he's catching up, it's almost like what I did didn't matter at all,_ he thought, _Even though I was trying to keep him alive. I thought we could make it._ Overtaken by resentment, even frustration more than willing to replace the sheer disbelief, Killua clicked his tongue, grimacing. _Is this gonna be the end of the line for you, Gon?_ Killua trembled, as if having attempted to move forward, to chase them further, but failing; the indecision caused him to look down towards the ground, glaring at it the same way one would glare at an enemy. The lacking reaction from the meaningless target of his emotionality warranted, despite everything, his expression softening, replaced with disappointment, and he despondently thought, wondering why he was somewhat sad to begin with, _Sorry..._ **"Fantasy Seal!"** Killua snapped his head to the direction of the trees then, spotting colorful orbs of light spinning around a single figure, floating near the trees with a reassuringly bright smile. Killua watched with wide eyes the aid beyond his control causing Hisoka and Gon to stop, and Hisoka to retreat from Gon as the orbs of light began to fly in his direction, homing on him specifically. Reimu approached the more Hisoka jumped back, out of the trees, and Killua moved aside not only to get a better view of the events transpiring at the moment, but also to avoid getting close to Hisoka as he still proceeded to dodge the multiple orbs, running back and watching a few explode when in contact with the trees, though the damage inflicted on them was minor at best. As he seemed to misdirect them from a more or less safe distance, Reimu flew near Killua and looked back to watch Gon dash in her direction with a smile.

"Ms. Reimu!" Gon called out to her in a mix of awe and pure happiness, as her presence let him know that she was in no trouble. On the other hand, Killua was still silent before Reimu's presence, staring in surprise and caution as she frowned their way, as if reminded of the negativity of the situation.

"It looks like you two really were in danger with Hisoka," Reimu remarked before setting her eyes on Hisoka again due to the sound of trees falling down. The orbs had hit them rather than Hisoka, who had swiftly managed to outrun their homing prowess and watched as the orbs were able to apply enough force to the trees to bash through them. When reminded of Hisoka, meanwhile, Gon turned to him with awe in an almost equal amount to seeing Reimu, staring intently his way as he reminisced.

That attitude stood as a far cry to the current Killua, who was unwilling to even set sight on the topic at hand, instead looking towards the horizon in an unfocused manner to coldly state, "We were just about to escape from him, but we probably wouldn't have lost him if this was anything to go by." He glanced Hisoka's way once, his gaze narrowing then, as if deep in thought. Reimu saw his lacking motivation and only crossed her arms, regarding him confusedly with furrowed eyebrows.

"Didn't you have the paper charms I gave you?" Reimu asked in an attempt to assess the extent of the situation that had occurred, hopefully to get through to Killua. He seemed to twitch ever so slightly, the topic holding some meaning to him, and Reimu continued in a nonchalant manner: "That would have given you at least more of an opening."

"We'd used them already," Killua flatly answered, clearly out of obligation. He had not met Reimu's gaze in any capacity yet, and the fact only caused further apprehension from Reimu, who was tapping her foot at a mild pace.

Reimu awkwardly nodded, her frown uncertain. "Right," she said as the first word to occur to her, even if it contributed little to the situation, before attempting to smile. "Then you weren't very lucky. Hisoka's already bad enough on his own; I'm definitely glad I could get here before he could do anything to you." For an easygoing Reimu, the genuine show of concern was a rare moment, and even Gon had lightly glanced in her direction to discern the discussion between the two, even if with little actual concentration. Killua, on the other hand, had shifted his gaze away even from the horizon, looking aside, towards almost the angle opposite of Reimu's position, to the point she could not notice the lacking emotion in his pale expression.

"I could've escaped," Killua muttered, his voice so quiet it would have been inaudible if further noise were in its background, but the orbs of light had already met their end by Hisoka, and nothing was obstructing Reimu's hearing. Instead, due to the hesitation present and the content of his softly-uttered words, Reimu tilted her head to the side, blinking.

"Huh?"

Killua then huffed, as if to dismiss her confusion and his own affirmation. "Forget it," he ultimately said, but he had not yet turned back forward, and Reimu grimaced in face of the bitter hint to his voice. She looked towards Hisoka, who was in the process of walking back to the three, and considered the situation: next to her were two children; human, without a doubt. Reimu's clear gaze was tinted then with slight disgust as she glared Hisoka down, thinking of his behavior so far; as another human being, notably with his own proper way of life.

Then, the passing seconds she observed that served as a reminder to Killua's low mood, and Reimu, though she did not shift her gaze to him, said firmly, as if absolutely certain of her words, "You didn't do anything wrong. The part that was wrong was the opponent you had to face, you hear me?" Killua was unresponsive, as expected, but Reimu continued just as assertively, if not more so now, enough to catch Gon's attention yet again: "So, the only one you should be blaming if anything went badly is him over there."

Said culprit had eyes only for Reimu, listening only vacantly to the conversation she was trying to have with Killua as he approached, only to stop still at least a meter away from the three. He smirked, confident and with needless flourish as he interjected, "Well, well, what a coincidence, Reimu. I hadn't expected to see you so far into the wetlands, much less to receive a welcome like that one. Did you come to save those two boys?" He gestured lightly to Gon and Killua beside her, but had still not shifted his gaze away from Reimu.

"Something like that," Reimu responded before locking ardent eyes with cold, yellow ones in kind, unwavering in her own nonchalant, albeit bitter stance. "What about you? Don't you have an exam to pass? You'd think there wouldn't be enough time to go around killing random people now."

"You're underestimating me, then," Hisoka dismissively countered with a wave of his hand, from which he no longer held the cards he was going to use against Gon in his chase. In comparison to his previous demeanor, he was even calm, gauging Reimu's reaction with calculating eyes while speaking: "When it comes to things like that, I always have plenty of free time."

Although he was unsure if he was to expect it or not, Reimu displayed nothing even remotely close to fear, or even irritation. Instead, she smiled, as if feeling challenged. "Is that so? You know, where I come from, people like you..." Then, she brandished her Purification Rod and stepped forward, but was notably refraining from truly attacking. "Don't live very long after meeting me."

"How scary," Hisoka commented in carefree mock-concern. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"

"It was a warning," Reimu responded with ease. "I don't care what you do with your life, but if you get in my way, you'll regret it."

"Would you chase me down to the ends of the Earth?" Hisoka asked, his voice lowering in octaves implying danger beyond simple intimidation. He appeared to be smirking, eyeing Reimu perhaps expectantly, but he now moved away from simply her gaze, looking up and down her figure as if for further confirmation. Seeing Reimu deliberately cross her arms, showing finally the fewest hints of caution, Hisoka's smirk widened, and he continued almost as a whisper: "Because that sounds more tempting than anything, in my view..."

"It won't be when I catch you," she sharply countered.

" _If_ you catch me, you mean." However, before Reimu or Hisoka could speak further, a beeping sound was heard from Hisoka, garnering the attention of everyone in the area, including Killua. Hisoka took what seemed to be a walkie-talkie, though Reimu shot the unfamiliar device a skeptic look as she recalled an incident where a similar apparatus was used.

From it came a voice none could recognize, seemingly distorted from lacking reception: "Hisoka," it uttered, "You should come back here right now. It looks like we're getting close to the site for Phase Two."

"Okay," Hisoka casually answered to the device, "I'll be right there." Then, he pocketed it just as casually, and faced Reimu, Gon and Killua once again with a smirk. "A friend is all you need, am I right? All things considered, your relationship with them was both their downfall and saving grace in this situation." He waved at them as he smiled cheerfully, while Reimu, Killua and Gon frowned in contrast to his seemingly bright mood. "Well, see you later, Reimu."

"Don't think you'll be getting away this easily the next time around!" Reimu exclaimed, "If you cause me any more trouble than this, consider yourself exterminated!" Seeing as Hisoka did not glance back, slow down or stop to give her statements any response, Reimu took to shifting her gaze to Gon and Killua. "Hisoka doesn't seem like he's out to kill anymore, so you're probably safe from here on out. If anything, I'm more worried about our chances of getting to Phase Two. Since this mist is so thick and there are all these trees everywhere, it's really hard tracking anything down even from air."

Faced with a topic so important from Reimu's own words, Gon and Killua looked her way with curiosity. "How did you find us, then?" Gon asked, being expectedly the first to voice what surged to his mind the moment Reimu spoke, as he had nothing else to be distracted with.

Reminded of better moments, Reimu smiled, gentler than normal as she faced Gon, and explained, "Well, since you used the paper charms I gave you, I ended up sensing the spiritual power from them and finding you here. I didn't plan for it, but it did come in handy, in the end."

"You're right about that!" Gon brightly exclaimed, seemingly impressed by Reimu. However, his expression softened as another thought occurred to him, and Reimu conversely regarded that with curiosity. "Oh, and thanks for dealing with Hisoka for us. I wasn't really thinking about it at the time, but we would've been in real trouble if you hadn't come over any sooner."

Reimu shrugged, before bluntly saying, "It was nothing." Despite her previous smile, Reimu was as if forced to frown despondently as she glanced to the side, towards where Hisoka had gone. Then, she grasped her weapon tightly, having already retracted her crossed arms and transitioning to a more active kind of stance, even if contrasted by her currently lacking energy. "It's not like I got to really beat him up, anyway."

"Speaking of, that attack you launched on Hisoka was really cool! Is that also something you just do where you come from?" Meanwhile, Gon was somehow more excited with the progressing conversation, flashing a genuine grin in Reimu's direction before waving his arm in a makeshift circle, symbolizing Reimu's attack against Hisoka.

Reimu eyed that awkwardly, perhaps even in a flustered manner, but she mustered a smile again so as to absent-mindedly say, "I concentrate and it pops out. Since it's a spellcard, it's pretty easy to make up."

"A spellcard? What's that?" Gon asked, curiosity laced strongly in his voice as he blinked.

"Oh, it's a kind of attack pattern we have back home," Reimu carelessly elaborated, with one hand over her hip as she spoke: "We represent them with cards in a formal duel, but they were always supposed to be normal attacks, so I also just use them in situations like these. Though, I usually have youkai on the receiving end of it."

"That sounds really complex," Gon remarked with a frown, originated from what seemed to be mere needless thought, "Is it like some sport? I don't have anything like that where I come from." Gon scratched his head, and Reimu conversely nodded, albeit with slight hesitation.

"Well, I suppose you could see it that way."

"More importantly," Killua interjected bitterly, cutting through whatever prospective answer Reimu would have gotten from her succint conclusion, "We can't keep stalling for time or we'll fail the phase. Didn't you hear whoever was talking to Hisoka there?" He gestured to the trees off to where Hisoka had last been seen, a grimace evident on his features, warranting a saddened frown from Gon, who turned to him with eyes narrowed only from worry.

"Killua," Gon called in a soft, though firm enough tone that hesitation was not shown. "Are you alright? I wasn't paying much attention before, but you looked like you were arguing with Ms. Reimu." Reimu perked up considering the topic, and Killua now felt two expectant gazes on him, which he scowled in light of.

"I'm fine," Killua countered almost as a first reaction, plain in tone, "If anything, aren't you being too carefree? You were almost getting killed by Hisoka if Reimu hadn't shown up." The following statements were uttered then with distinctive venom, resentment that Gon's mind had not yet registered as he had to process his question before giving out a proper answer.

"I mean, I get that part," Gon said if only to kickstart the explanation, his frown deepening with every thought. "When he was almost gonna grab me, I actually got scared for a moment; I didn't know what to do." With the continuing sentence, however, Gon saw a change in himself from a grimace of hopelessness to a surging small smile, against the expectations of even Reimu from the back, who was still curiously staring their way. "Then, when I started running, it was almost like I wasn't so scared anymore: well, I still was, but then again, I was kind of excited, too."

"Excited? Even though you were almost dying?" Killua's eyebrows were arched in full doubt, while Gon had a hand over his chest as a gesture of his conviction. Said conviction, regardless, was displeasing to a scowling Killua hoping for a more normal response out of Gon, who shrugged ever so slightly.

"I guess," Gon responded before faintly patting his chest, which his hand had been touching beforehand, "It was all stuff I haven't even felt before, but it really got to me. Like I wouldn't even mind experiencing it again..." Gon muttered the last sentence as if distracted by his own imagination, his voice low and spacy before he noted after blinking the confused frowns on the faces of both Reimu and Killua. Gon smiled apprehensively, chuckling weakly before asking, "Am I really the only one?"

"I don't want to die, so I'd say so," Reimu promptly answered.

"Ditto," Killua added with further apparent apathy. "Still, if you were that suicidal, I should've just not bothered saving you, huh?"

"It wouldn't have been worth it if I didn't survive," Gon retorted with light unease before mustering a smile despite what he perceived to be a joke from Killua. "So if anything, I'm thankful you two saved me, too." Killua blinked as his only sign of confusion, without much time for thought, but Gon took note of the slight reaction and more assertively explained: "If you hadn't distracted Hisoka with the paper charm, I might've been done for before Ms. Reimu arrived."

Killua's expression had suffered no changes after that, perhaps because he was thinking over Gon's words, but seeing as the moment given for an answer had yielded no results, Reimu decided to ask expectantly, "You still have the paper charms, right?"

"Oh, I've got mine," Gon immediately said with a proud grin, only to remove the paper charm from a pocket of his shorts. He handed it to Reimu quickly, then eyeing her with an apologetic edge. "It's a little torn, but I couldn't take it out any better from the bushes." Reimu, on the other hand, was noticing the scratches on his hand as she took the paper charm from it, and figuring he had even bothered to search for it, she smiled in her most reliable manner.

"It's alright," Reimu said, her voice energetic in timbre, "As long as most of it's intact, I can manage."

"Here's mine, by the way," Killua said just as suddenly as Gon, but his voice was comparatively neutral. Though he had always been in Reimu's line of sight, she had hardly even notice him take the paper charm from his own pocket, instead already seeing him stretching his arm in her direction, loosely so. Killua glanced at Gon, and when Reimu took the paper, he smirked slyly. "Also, thanks for the easy win." While Reimu raised an eyebrow questioningly, Gon's smile faded immediately, replaced by a strangely harmless scowl directed to Killua.

"Ah, now that you mention it **—**!"

"Just drop it, Gon," Killua dismissively uttered with a shrug, pointing at Reimu with a blank gaze, "You want her to waste more paper on us?"

"It _would_ be bad if we just spent it when she wanted to recycle for herself," Gon said, his expression softening as he considered Killua's words.

"Yup," Killua said before even Reimu could understand and speak out in regards to the topic, as she blinked in curiosity. Killua, meanwhile, was looking aside with a wry smile, half-focused on his thoughts and half-aware of the conversation. "Figured you'd end up thinking that. You're a huge weirdo, after all." He then set his eyes on Gon again, narrowed with the implication of condescension belying them.

Gon pouted at first, before countering, "What's that supposed to mean?"

The show of innocence warranted a snicker from Killua. "Nothing," he vaguely responded before turning to Reimu, who had been previously smiling in reaction to what she noted as children's antics. However, now that Killua seemed to be frowning in a less playful manner, she eyed him curiously seeing him begin to speak: "Seriously, though, you've got magic, right? Wanna use it so we can get back to the examiner?"

"If I could do that, I'd have done it already." Reimu crossed her arms and directed her gaze upwards, pondering absent-mindedly. Her casual frown was not especially indicative of agitation despite the stakes of the matter, and she simply responded, still without much focus, "As far as I can tell, our best bet would be to just regroup with Marisa and find the examiner then. We don't have much time to waste."

"But if we don't have time to waste, we can't just regroup with Marisa," Killua retorted. "Searching for her would just make us have less time to search for the examiner."

"I can't leave her alone much longer without knowing where she is. She's under my jurisdiction, you know?"

"What about that backdoor you have?" Gon suddenly interjected in the middle of the discussion before both could start glaring at each other imposingly. Instead, both shifted their gazes to Gon in confusion, expecting him to continue his reasoning. Gon then smiled, gaining confidence in his own words while he continued: "Didn't Ms. Marisa say that you could use it to reach her? Since Ms. Marisa's probably still with Leorio and Kurapika, we'd find the three in no time if we used the backdoor, and that would make it so we could all search for the examiner together!" His bright conclusion had warranted no reaction from the two near Gon, and he frowned in turn with the silence. "Is that still bad? I do know it'd be bad barging into someone's house, but we'd just be passing by."

"That's..." Reimu paused, stumbling over her words as she considered the exceedingly simple suggestion Gon had brought upon her so effortlessly. "That's not a bad idea, actually," she ultimately said with a frown, as if still mulling over it as she spoke. "I might get scolded for it, if anything, but that's better than not passing the phase."

"Well, it's not like we have any better options," Killua said. "Besides, Gon has a point. With more people on our side, we have a higher chance of finding the examiner."

Reimu sighed. "I can't argue with that either," she tiredly admitted, seemingly despondent. However, in a fit of sudden anger, she scowled, causing Gon and Killua to tense from the change of mood. "And really, if this exam and that Hisoka guy weren't so troublesome, I wouldn't have gotten into this mess to begin with! I'll seriously take him down if I find out this whole thing was useless and he was tricking me!" Reimu proceeded to close her eyes with a huff, concentrating on the energy stored in her back; the energy that was not truly hers. Sensing the backdoor showing itself, Reimu opened her eyes again, which were burning with conviction. "Anyway, you go in first, but don't go any farther into the place than you have to!"

Gon and Killua were leaning to the side in awe as they stared at the purple door, which led its way into an abyssal realm they could not see the end to. Needless to say that for the two boys, the sight was nothing short of awesome, so they nodded in unison to Reimu's words. "Alright!" Gon exclaimed before jumping to the door without a single trace of hesitation. Instead, his grin was so bright it was almost contagious, and Killua could not hold back the urge to at least flash him a smile as he watched and took to following suit without sparing Reimu any parting words.

"I hope Okina doesn't nag me over this..." So went Reimu's last words before she sunk into the open backdoor and was met with the Land of the Rear Door, as expected.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Although Mai and Satono were hard at work, Okina's free time did not increase. Even before her reveal, she had always been a busy entity, governing the resolution of all problems unseen to the general population of Gensokyo. However, now that she was just as occupied with the recent incident, there was no time for rest. She had deducted Yukari had a plan, but Okina, too, had crafted a plan of her own and its effects were felt strictly in her abode for now.

Okina was leaving her two servants behind after questioning them on their progress, and it was clear that she would see results soon enough. In the meantime, her own task lay on inspecting the barrier, but said task had already been executed to no avail: no matter how long she took in analyzing the exact amount of energy in each corner and edge of the Great Hakurei Barrier, it was painfully clear that there was no significant fluctuation in the distribution of its energy that would indicate it had ever been open for the passage of a foreign individual, especially one from another dimension. As such, she could only conclude that the mastermind had entered Gensokyo from within, without passing through the barrier.

In other words, Okina would have to broaden her scan of Gensokyo's energy levels, though she had long but figured she was too late for that. _We'd already concluded the mastermind has been in Gensokyo for at least months,_ Okina thought, _and had they passed through the barrier, I would have noticed then. If I were always supervising the entirety of Gensokyo, I might have been able to note the fluctuation from the mastermind's entry, but I only do that in case of an emergency... How troublesome this mastermind is. By now, whatever change in Gensokyo's life force caused by the mastermind's arrival is non-existent, so I have no leads on the method used to enter **—**_

Her train of thought came to a halt at the mere magical presence of an open door in her realm, a sensation she was especially in tune with due to the nature of the backdoors, as they were all connected to herself, ultimately. Okina knew of Mai and Satono's whereabouts, as always: if they were ever to be sent somewhere, or if they endeavoured to come and go from her abode, she would never be unaware of it. Due to this, it was easy for Okina to assume that either Reimu or Marisa were entering the Land of the Rear Door so as to reach Gensokyo, just as they had done before. _It's coming from Reimu's backdoor..._ Okina flew for the location, which was far into the opposite corner of where Mai and Satono were presently stationed; a corner where the backdoors Reimu and Marisa would never use lay. _Marisa has to come and go in order to tend to her injury, but Reimu shouldn't have a reason to come back when she took a rest only two days ago._ Regardless, Okina had the obligation to meet Reimu or Marisa whenever they traveled to her realm since she was the only available person with intricate knowledge of all backdoors existent in her home, and she would not waste the opportunity to receive any kind of report on Reimu's findings on Nen or the other dimension. _The last time I spoke to her, she mentioned she was going to take an exam that would get her closer to leads on Nen. Did she pass the exam already, then, and has come for me with crucial information?_

The prospect was certainly satisfying, and Okina's stance was perpetually confident as she felt she had nothing to fear, but the sight originating from her arrival to the location of Reimu and Marisa's backdoors immediately countered all of her expectations. She halted her movement, her eyes wide with shock, and scrutinized the presence of three different people, one of them Reimu herself. "Woah, this place is amazing, Ms. Reimu! It's all full of doors; just how far does this place stretch for? It feels like I could go anywhere from here!" The enthusiastic voice of a boy in green resounded in the area, its volume loud enough that it was more than audible to Okina, who was far enough from the three that they could not yet note her presence.

"You better not get any funny ideas!" Reimu promptly snapped, "If you wander off for a second, you'll be lost in this door maze of a place!"

"Doesn't this door dimension thing belong to someone else?" Okina approached the three in order to better hear the inquiry that came from the boy with white hair and similarly light clothing, but she had only been able to understand the last four words. The boy's expression seemed nonchalant at first, but his gaze was cold with calculating caution as he surveyed the area. Seeing him then turn precisely in her direction, Okina grimaced, figuring his senses were sharp because his guard was up. "And since we're being watched right now, I guess she's the one who owns the place." He pointed at her, leading both Reimu and the boy in green to face Okina in curiosity. However, Reimu's curiosity was soon replaced with displeasure when she noted Okina's expression, and she suppressed the urge to groan.

"It's her, alright," Reimu dryly responded as she stared at Okina, who floated for them at a moderate speed.

"She's also flying," the boy in green commented, his bright gaze unwavering. To Okina, that sort of admiration was only natural when it came to regarding her godly existence, so it did not improve or worsen her mood.

"That's because she's a witch like Reimu is," the other boy added as though he were uttering common sense, only to glance his way vacantly.

"You're close, but she's actually a youkai sage," she said as if mentioning a piece of curious trivia, which only Gon was taking with interest in his bright eyes.

"A god, Reimu," Okina asserted in quick succession to Reimu's own claim, "Not a youkai."

"A god?!" the boy in green uttered in pure shock, "Really?!"

"Of course not, you dork," the boy next to him argued, "She's lying."

Okina coldly glanced at the two boys, and the one who had just spoken locked eyes with her in an equally condescending fashion. However, Okina did not see worth in wasting her time with children. She faced Reimu with a domineering expression, frowning her way. "And really, Reimu, what is the meaning of this? I doubt you'd bring guests from that world to Gensokyo considering the circumstances."

The two boys frowned in light of Okina's seemingly unwelcoming behaviour, while Reimu locked determined eyes with Okina. "Look, we don't have much time right now. I got separated from Marisa, so I just need you to open her backdoor and get us back on track with the exam I'm doing."

 _So that exam isn't over yet... I hadn't thought the applicants for a supposedly infamous test would be so young, but these children couldn't possibly be anything else, all things considered._ Okina huffed, only to snap her fingers. "If that's all you need, I have no objections." To the awe of the two boys nearby, a door located behind Okina shone the same way they had previously seen Reimu's shine a purple colour, while Reimu was far too familiar with the system by that point to have a reaction to the phenomenon. Okina, on the other hand, smirked as she continued to ponder on Reimu. "I suppose I underestimated your dedication to your duties. Let us forsake my misunderstanding," Okina imposingly offered as she cast her gaze to not only Reimu, but to the two boys who she had been previously ignoring. "Seeing as you're the ever-responsible Hakurei Shrine Maiden, I'll trust your judgement and welcome all those you bring in and out of my abode accordingly. With that in mind..." Okina moved away from the open backdoor, and watched as Reimu approached it, while the two boys watched. "I wish you all luck."

Unimpressed by what he perceived as Okina's theatrics, the boy with white hair simply followed Reimu with a grimace out of the Land of the Rear Door. The wetlands' mist-shrouded scenery could be seen from the backdoor to Marisa, so there was no hesitation in him when it came to passing through, and since Okina seemed to be on good terms with Reimu, he did not doubt her in that regard. The boy in green, however, looked towards Okina in wonder before smiling her way, a reaction Okina was not especially adverse or privy to, especially as she had meant to smoothen her animosity towards the residents of the other world. "Thanks," he said, but it took him almost not time to continuing speaking, even though Okina had assumed that was all he had to say in reaction to her friendly display: "For helping Ms. Reimu and Ms. Marisa, I mean. If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have been taking the exam, after all." Okina's eyebrows rose in doubt, perhaps curiosity for the boy's intentions, which had been admittedly unexpected. However, before she could respond to him in any manner, he waved at her as he ran for the backdoor. "Bye bye, Ms. Goddess!"

With that, he was no longer in her realm, and Okina watched as the backdoor closed on its own, likely on Marisa's admission. In spite of her busy self, her thoughts currently resided on the boy that had just spoken to her rather than Reimu or the mastermind, particularly on his thought process. She knew he held no ulterior motives; his reasoning was perfectly straightforward. In fact, he had assuredly added those final words because he had, in the spur of the moment, realized he had invited a misunderstanding, as his show of gratitude was entirely genuine. Unnecessary, but innocent and honest, without malice or an especially concrete benevolence; a mere set of words expressing a specific kind of joy.

Okina chuckled. _As expected of a child,_ she thought, _If that's the kind of visitor Reimu is willing to bring me, I might just entertain myself with their presence._ Indeed, she concluded with a content smile on her face as she gazed at the two materializing doors corresponding to the two boys that had stepped on her realm, even if she were busy with the incident, she would surely find time for Reimu and whoever else she would bring. If that visitor happened to be that boy again, all the better for Okina.

Either way, she had nothing to lose, and plenty to gain.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Looks like we caught up to the top runners," Leorio remarked with weary eyes fixated on faint shadows of people running. He frowned almost tiredly, and he panted heavily with each moment of his perpetual run through the wetlands. It would seem that Leorio was beyond his limit, but something within him kept him from giving up; a fiery determination burnt strongly, never to waver. "Right? Right?" Though, when it came to his perception of his current surroundings, he most surely did waver, as he looked towards Kurapika and Marisa in pure apprehension. "It's not another damn beast, right?! Marisa, go check!"

"On it," Marisa dryly responded, if only to ensure that she had at least loosely acknowledged his request. She reached under her skirt, grasping from a secret compartment a bottle filled with an unappealing brown substance. She rose it high, holding left arm back back so as to increase the propulsion of the bottle, and squinted so as to better aim it. "Take thaaaaaaaaa..." Marisa's arm twitched in place, ceasing to move from the clear sight she had quickly processed. She had planned on shouting, on loudly proclaiming her attack so as to feel some satisfaction from an action she had frankly executed far too many times for her liking, but the volume of her voice instantly shrinked to a mere drawn-out whisper in face of the person she least wanted to see.

Hisoka's entirely apathetic expression lended itself to a slight show of curiosity when he heard a familiar voice from behind him as he ran for the examiner. His eyes wider from the piqued interest, and his eyebrows arched in unsubtle doubt, his head turned for Marisa, followed by Kurapika and Leorio. The three were staring at him warily, with Kurapika and Leorio scowling almost reflexively as they recalled the heinous acts he had commited, and the various corpses they had seen. Unlike the other two with her, Marisa mustered a smile, even if a bitter one as she was also recalling the needless bloodshed, and uttered, "'Sup, Hisoka? You headin' for the top runners over there?"

Marisa's presence reminded him of Reimu, so Hisoka slowed down his pace and decided to humor what he perceived to be Marisa's feeble attempt at information-gathering. "Does it look like I'd be doing anything other than that?" Hisoka did not miss the trembling fists of Leorio or Kurapika's eyes shifting to the side as if to suppress disgust, and the reactions were exactly as he wanted them to be. He smirked at Marisa, his tone eerily conversational, while Marisa tried her best to match it accordingly.

"If the dead bodies I found are any reference, I'd say serial murder's pretty high on your list of things to do other than actually takin' the exam." Truthfully, Marisa's words were dripping with bitter venom, and she was frowning by that point, but she knew better than to argue with Hisoka any further in her state. However, considering Hisoka was chuckling at the remark's expense, as if the topic were in any way amusing, Marisa could not help but find herself somewhat distracted from her main goal.

"But I am taking the exam," Hisoka lightly retorted, fully aware of the contrast between his cheerful expression and Marisa's. Even so, he was not yet done with the true fun. His eyes glinting with meaningful wonder, Hisoka spoke with only the purest of neutral tones: "Though, speaking of, were those corpses helpful? As far as I could see, you and Reimu did seem a bit lost in the back. Since they almost make a path, it's rather easy to stay on the right track by following their direction."

"W-wait, you..." Marisa paused almost involutarily, as no coherent word made its way onto her mind fast enough for her to voice her shock. "Did you..." Regardless, she had not failed to process the implications behind his words. She scowled, pure hatred coursing through her. "Was that why you killed them...?"

"Oh, that was just a coincidence," Hisoka casually, if not dismissively responded, utterly immune to Marisa's clear resentment. "I only killed them because I felt like it."

"You bastard..." Leorio muttered, resulting in Kurapika snapping his attention to him in urgent agitation. Hisoka willfully ignored his words, focusing on Marisa, but Leorio was sure he had heard him; the fact only had his anger intensify.

"Leorio, don't," Kurapika whispered, "You'll just get us into danger. Didn't you see enough of what he's capable of already?"

Meanwhile, Marisa grimaced, and steeled her emotions so as to render her emotional gaze cold enough to pass as assertive. "Where's Reimu and the others? You saw them, didn't you?" _He's just trying to get a rise out of us, this prick. If I fall for it, I'll just make it worse on me 'cause he'll be the one laughing last._

"I left them just a while ago," Hisoka plainly answered fast enough that Marisa was slightly surprised at his momentary honesty. "They're safe, so I'm sure you'll see each other again very soon." Marisa frowned, noting that she had already showed herself affected by his words due to the surprise that came with his response. If anything, he may have framed it that way precisely because he realized Marisa had figured he was purposefully taunting her, crushing her mental fortitude simply for his amusement. _Really can't let my guard down on this guy..._ "Was that all you wanted to know, Marisa?"

A simple assertion, disguised as an innocent inquiry; Hisoka himself no longer had any business with her. Similarly enough, he knew that Marisa no longer had any business with him, either. "You better not be lying," Leorio interjected, finally garnering Marisa and Hisoka's attention, "Those three'd better be safe and sound, you hear me?! Because if I find out they aren't...!"

"Leorio...!" Kurapika shouted, both reprimanding and interrupting Leorio's threat in one swift, albeit strained exclamation. Leorio glared back at him, protesting in silence only because his thoughts were not being as fast as his own emotions, leading him not to have words to say for a moment long enough for Marisa to shift her gaze to Hisoka again out of sheer caution.

Hisoka had decided to do the same, focusing on Marisa again. Despite Leorio's heartfelt outburst, assuredly daring considering he was facing Hisoka, Hisoka smirked in amusement, as if he had seen a seen a child rambling about a fictional story. Marisa asserted one thing out of this exchange: she really could not stand Hisoka. "I have someone waiting on me, so I'll be hurrying now." That statement was nothing but refreshing to Marisa and Kurapika, who stared at him expectantly. "See you later; preferably with Reimu the next time around."

With that, Hisoka rushed into the mist with a remarkably casual stance, mixing into the shadows they could now knew with certainty to be real people. The three took to watching that for a moment, attempting to determine whether he was truly far away from them or not. Then, a groan broke the ice, and Marisa and Kurapika immediately turned to Leorio. "That damned psycho! If he weren't such a freaking landmine, I'd have decked him in the face **—** No, that wouldn't be enough, I'd have beaten him 'til he looked unrecognizable, just like he deserves!"

"You would have tried to punch him anyway, considering your reckless attitude," Kurapika sourly retorted before sighing, almost despondently so. "If I hadn't stopped you, we would have all been in danger."

"C'mon, Kurapika! You can't tell me you didn't wanna deck him in the face, too!" Leorio ardently argued, "Did you hear the crap he was spouting to Marisa?! That guy's an unforgivable murderer and he doesn't regret what he's done one bit! He might've even hurt Gon and the others!"

"Don't think I didn't find him just as reprehensible as you did, Leorio." His gaze unwavering, Kurapika's tense stance only appeared to indicate a fraction of the multitude of emotions he could recall simply by the topic Leorio was introducing, but it served as a good reference for how serious he was about his words. "Hisoka is a despicable, cruel man. And that's precisely why I don't want to see you or anyone else dying to him in vain. If you're so quick to accuse Marisa of loosely throwing away her life, you, too, should start thinking about treasuring your own for once."

Kurapika's sound arguments stabbed through Leorio like sharpened knives. The fire of his fury erased by wistful reflection, Leorio had no words to truthfully use against Kurapika, or even Hisoka now. "Kurapika..." Regardless, at Kurapika's consideration for his wellbeing, Leorio could not help but find himself in some awe of his strength of character, even if it so wildly differed from his own.

"I just thought I could get Hisoka to tell me where Reimu or Gon and Killua are, but it didn't do us any good, that's for sure," Marisa said as she stored the bottle she had been gripping all that time on the compartment underneath her skirt yet again, only to look towards Leorio and Kurapika with a grimace. "Sorry about that."

"No, there is no need to apologize," Kurapika calmly responded. "Your idea wasn't bad by any means, especially considering you not only have enough familiarity with Hisoka to start a conversation without any physical risk to your wellbeing, but also the fact that there was a very high chance that he had come across either Reimu or Gon and Killua. It just so happened that Hisoka was too deranged to constitute a reliable source of information."

Marisa clicked her tongue in irritation. "Tell me about it: if Reimu's intuition weren't at work, I'd have long but assumed that guy tricked her into taking the exam just so he could spend more time with her. Still, he was decent enough a tour guide for me, so I thought he'd at least cooperate this time around when even Reimu's involved, but he just had to piss us off instead...!" Marisa almost growled as anger continued to more freely pour out of her, something Kurapika and Leorio did not see as surprising if only because Hisoka was that unlikable. "Seriously, I gotta agree with Leorio on this one: I sure wish I could deck him in the face..." She paused while rummaging through her clothing, only to remove her signature weapon, aiming it at nothing in particular. "With lasers!"

"You've got a good imagination going there, Marisa," Leorio remarked with a hint of pride in his voice, as if Marisa's supposed accomplishment were partially his. "But in my opinion, nothing beats the old school punch when you wanna feel like you got them good. If you ever get close enough, make it count for the three of us, alright?"

"If whacking him with a stick still counts as old school, I'll leave that to Reimu and do the lasers anyway," Marisa said, "Then it'll be double the damage."

"Wait, you've got actual lasers?" Leorio questioned incredulously, even if part of him wanted to praise Marisa for her exceedingly ingenious tactic regarding her revenge against Hisoka.

"More importantly," Kurapika stated, "while Hisoka said that Reimu and the others would get here soon, there's no guarantee that he was saying the truth. You said there was probably no need to search for Reimu, but your basis was only her luck. Even if Reimu is supposedly blessed with otherwordly luck and a keen intuition, she could have failed to meet up with Gon and Killua, forcing her to return here by herself. After all, Hisoka never specified if he had seen the three together."

"Nah, Reimu's found them," Marisa loosely said, "That's what her luck's for. I'd only be worried about Reimu not figuring out a way to carry them over here."

"If she had your broom, it'd be a no-brainer," Leorio added, "but she's only got two arms, so it'd make more sense for her to be tracking our location down before pointing Gon and Killua in the right direction."

"There's also that, but with this mist, it'd be way too hard to track anything down while flying," Marisa responded, "So she'd be better off just sticking close to the two all the way through and getting her intuition to figure out the way. Even if she had my broom, she'd still have a tough time comin' back. Basically, this whole place is tricky to navigate, but since this is Reimu we're talking about, she'll pull through somehow. Just don't ask me how she'll do it 'cause I've got as much of a clue as you do." Then, sensing something on her back, Marisa smiled, while Leorio and Kurapika's eyes widened noting the light shining on her back. "Speak of the devil." Marisa continued flying without even looking back, but Kurapika in particular was recording all details of the forming door in his mind, seeing it open with meticulous precision and the fading light revealing a dark space. "Didn't expect her to use this, though."

"Wha... That weird door again?!" Leorio exclaimed in shock, especially as he saw from that door Reimu flying into the wetlands as though that were perfectly normal; her nonchalant stance was only further indicative of that. "Reimu...!" However, the surprise was not over with just her. Right after Reimu, Killua jumped from the purple door, his expression even more neutral than Reimu's as he effortlessly landed and turned around so as to accompany the four's ever-advancing forms. "And Killua, too!"

"This door thing sure is convenient," Killua flatly remarked as he looked over Kurapika, Leorio and Marisa, as if to ascertain whether they were real or not. However, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Killua immediately prioritized his main concern as he spoke out: "So, how far into the wetlands are we now that we regrouped?"

"I can see people running from afar, but I can't tell if they're real or just another pesky monster," Reimu responded with a grimace. She squinted towards the shadowed figures, but she did not find herself with a clear enough view of them to reach a conclusion.

"They're all real," Marisa said, "No doubt about it."

"We're back!" Gon's enthusiastic greeting had the five shift their gazes to him, noting that he had only now left the backdoor on Marisa. Said door quickly faded afterwards, with Marisa, Reimu and Killua watching that briefly. Meanwhile, Kurapika and Leorio smiled at Gon after Leorio had breathed out in pure relief from simply laying eyes on his cheerful, entirely unscathed self.

"Gon! Do you know how hard you got us worried?! If it was gonna come to this, you and Killua should've just stayed with us and avoided Hisoka!" Leorio protested, though his clearly brightened disposition considerably dispelled the effectiveness of his words. At the reference to Hisoka's mere existence, Reimu and Killua glared at Leorio reflexively, as if seeing him in place of Leorio.

Meanwhile, Gon chuckled weakly. "I guess you were right all along when you told me to worry about myself instead of you," Gon admitted with a hint of hesitation, as if he were not entirely convinced of his own wrongdoing. Regardless, he looked towards Reimu and beamed as he recalled her reliable presence. "At least Reimu showed up in time to save us, so we ended up okay."

"But in the end, I didn't beat him up," Reimu muttered in a voice strained with resentment, even sadness.

"What? Why not?" Marisa asked with indignation, eyes wide in simultaneous surprise from the lack of violence involved in one of Reimu's ventures.

"I took so long getting to them I didn't even have the time for it," Reimu explained, "Besides, he sure wasn't trying anything by the time I arrived. Whenever I'm around, he's basically all talk."

"I'd say something about you having a thing for fighting, but even I can get being depressed over not being able to beat Hisoka up," Leorio said. "Still, if you arrived late, how'd you also get there in time like Gon said?

"Well, by the time Reimu arrived, Hisoka was closing in on me **—** "

"That's not in time at all!" Leorio exclaimed over Gon's justification, glaring intensely Reimu's way, almost fuming as he noted her flinch. "The hell were you doing while Gon was taking Hisoka on?!"

"The mist's a pain, alright?! And the animals weren't helping, either!" Reimu shot back with an equivalent glare, even if her voice trembled slightly in apprehension originated by guilt considering the situation.

"Uh," Gon uttered then, awkwardly and with an uneven smile as he garnered the gazes of Reimu and Leorio again with his own interruption. "Besides, we only managed to get found because Reimu gave us the paper charms to use. She can apparently sense them, too."

"Of course she can," Leorio stated plainly, his eyes squinting from sheer suspension of disbelief.

"Normally she can't, though," Marisa supplied with curiosity in her voice. She looked around as if searching for the answer in her surroundings, only to shrug. "Maybe it's 'cause it stands out in comparison to Nen?"

"And in the end, you were being targeted by Hisoka," Kurapika summarized, only to gentle smile as he laid eyes on Gon first and foremost. "I only took it as a possibility, but knowing it was true all along makes me all the more glad she was able to retrieve you. Incidentally, if she arrived at such a dangerous time, that would mean you bought enough time for it, right? I'm curious as to how you got to defend yourselves against Hisoka for that long."

"It wasn't that long, really," Gon answered, "But while I was facing Hisoka and he was almost getting me, Killua threw a skateboard to get him away and showed off his paper charm to distract him. That's when I got to run away."

"Doesn't that mean Killua gave you an opening to run away and sacrificed his? He could've been in danger," Leorio pointed out with a frown, glanced Killua's way with notable concern.

Said concern was met with a scowl from Killua himself. "Me? I don't wanna hear that from the old timer of all people," Killua snidely commented, faking neutrality before breaking into an uncontrollable smirk watching Leorio's face contorting in anger.

"Hey!"

As Leorio continued to shout about his real age, Kurapika simply interjected, "Rather, I'm more surprised you thought of throwing a skateboard at Hisoka of all people at the time."

Killua grimaced. "Shoot, I forgot all about that skateboard," he hissed out in a mix of shock and bitter disappointment, his words shot at speeds so fast it was hard to make out exactly what he was saying. "And since he even cut through it like it was nothing, I can't even get you to ask the old hag to get it back for me. What a drag..."

"O-old hag..." Marisa looked towards Reimu questioningly, while Reimu only shrugged in response. Unable to contain herself, she began to snicker, particularly the more she thought of it. "That Okina you're talkin' about? 'Cause that's sure one way of putting it..."

"Okina? Who's that?" Leorio immediately asked with a voice flat with blunt skepticism, the foreign name putting his anger into a complete halt.

"It's the goddess who lives in a land full of doors." Against Leorio's expectations, it was Gon who had offered an answer to a question he thought only Marisa or Reimu would have substantial knowledge about. Furthermore, his cheery expression and straightforward phrasing was extremely telling of his confidence in the information he had, though Leorio and Kurapika could not help but vacantly stare as they processed that there was no hidden meaning behind the supposed nonsense Gon had uttered. "She's the one who's making it so Ms. Reimu and Ms. Marisa can travel here from their homeland! She's also the one who got us to catch up with Ms. Marisa!"

"I'm sorry, Gon," Kurapika said, "I assume I misheard you, but for the sake of confirmation, I'll ask anyway. Did you just tell us that Reimu and Marisa are cooperating with a goddess of doors?"

"It's just a witch friend they have," Killua interjected, "but the part about the land of doors is true. We just came from there; that's where the purple doors they got lead to."

"That's..." Kurapika paused, struggling to choose the best, most tactful phrasing for the situation. He buried his intense doubt under his closed eyelids, and he uttered, his voice vacantly strained, "Admittedly hard to believe, but considering Reimu and Marisa's mysterious abilities and the fact that we have actually seen that door, it really shouldn't be surprising."

"But wait, that Okina person isn't an applicant, right?" Leorio asked, blinking as if unable to yet process the full extent of the circumstances. "Isn't _that_ cheating, then?!"

"Mr. Satotz never said we couldn't use outside help to follow him," Gon stated in an almost innocent voice, as if his words were entirely obvious.

"Not like he needs to know, anyway," Marisa added with a sly smile with her index finger leaned straight on her mouth in order to signify silence. Seeing Leorio sigh dejectedly, likely remarking inwardly on his lacking magical gifts, Marisa retracted her gesture and causally spoke: "Besides, without this, Reimu and the others might've been lost, so all's well when it ends well."

"Seriously though, I kinda want that skateboard back." Killua frowned as he faced Reimu, though the unenthusiasm implied by the plain tone of his voice seemed to express that he was not that invested. "It was new, so it's feeling like a waste now."

"I could always buy you another one of those board things, you know? I've got money to spare," Reimu offered with a smile.

However, Killua stared at that assuredly unconvinced, his eyebrows arched as he casually voiced, "You're like that now, but who's to say you're not gonna bail afterwards? It's not like you can even tell if you're gonna pass the exam."

"Well, I'll be passing for sure," Reimu asserted, "so as long as you pass, too, I can hold up my end of the deal."

Killua hummed pensively, and even that sound was nonchalant with implicit doubt. "I'll pass," he succinctly stated, his frown thin for a few seconds before a smile of an almost eerily innocent nature crept into his features. "But it's definitely not enough passing just so I can get a skateboard in the end. If there's anything that'd be worth the effort, it _sure_ would be a flying broom." He glanced at Marisa then, whose own broom was currently being utilized in comparison to when the phase started.

Marisa shook her head, smiling wryly back as she remarked, "Reimu doesn't mind throwing me under the bus to pass and I haven't been making more brooms in ages, so tough luck, Killua. Nice try, though." Hearing Killua huff begrudgingly, Marisa and Reimu glanced each other's way with cheeky smiles, seemingly amused with the result of the conversation. Then, in light of the mound of applicants they could see simply standing near a large gate made of steel, Marisa landed on the ground and took to surveying the area, while Gon and Killua passed by them with a final dash.

Leorio had stopped behind Reimu and Marisa to catch his breath, while Kurapika stood beside him with cautious eyes, as if on the look out for something or someone. "I didn't think there'd be a place like this one in the middle of a swamp!" Gon remarked in wonder as he walked about, his gaze restless in looking through every applicant. "So this is where Phase Two's gonna be!"

"It seems like we made it in time," Kurapika said. He glanced at Satotz, the examiner, who was focused on his wristwatch; Kurapika immediately figured the time limit was nearing the Hunter applicants. "Though I don't feel very proud of how we got here, to be honest." He had planned on laying eyes on Gon and Killua so as to attain some peace of mind, but he saw them almost frozen while staring to the left, a state that far differed from when they had first stepped onto the site of the second phase.

When he followed their gaze, Kurapika understood why: Hisoka was leaning on a tree in a corner of the area marking the stopping point of the first phase, his stance unfairly relaxed. He gave Gon and Killua a smile, and when Reimu and Marisa noted the tension coming from the two boys, they shifted their attention to Hisoka, who proceeded to wave at them. "I wonder how he managed to get here on his own," Reimu uttered in an absent-minded fashion, choosing to ignore Hisoka's greeting and instead focus on Marisa and the others.

The strangely carefree inquiry served to break the concentration of Gon and Killua, as they both faced Reimu. "That walkie-talkie he used doubled as a tracking device," Killua promptly answered, "so we weren't the only ones resorting to outside help. The reason he could go around killing all those people without any worries was definitely because he wasn't working alone after all."

"He had more friends than Reimu and Marisa?" Leorio questioned, but upon feeling the intensity of Reimu and Marisa's glares, he corrected himself: "I mean, they were never actual friends, but who'd ever wanna associate with that guy?"

"It could be a case similar to Reimu and Marisa's, where the association was circumstancial," Kurapika offered. "Either way, it goes without saying that Hisoka is untrustworthy."

Reimu and Marisa nodded, their thoughts alligned under the same notion as the other four: Hisoka was not an ally. Meanwhile, Gon meant to intervene, to participate in the conversation, but it was brought to a halt by the booming voice of a calm and collected Satotz, who stood in front of the giant gate: "Excellent work, everyone." Every applicant turned to him simultaneously, their attentions solely fixated on his words. "The second phase of the exam is to be held here, in the Biska Forest Park." Reimu looked up in an attempt to see beyond the examiner and the gate, but the most she could take in from the location was the thick and tall stone wall surrounding the premises. While Marisa thought it to seem like a castle, she found some confusion in the name of the area, as it did not have any relation to what she had imagined. "As such, this is where I'll be taking my leave. I wish you all the best of luck."

After politely bowing before all of the remaining 107 applicants, he stepped forward with thin legs raised tall at each moment in order to leave the phase behind once and for all. Everyone's eyes were on him as he did so, almost as if in anticipation for some sort of trap. When they saw his figure fading into the horizon, thinking there were now grounds to relax, the ground trembled and brought them to look in the opposite direction.

The metallic gate slowly slid aside, filling expectant and cautious gazes with an unfamiliar building akin to almost a mansion coloured a pristine white, surrounded by multiple different stands. Their purpose was unknown to every applicant, even if some could associate them with kitchens, though only barely. "Would all the Hunter applicants who passed Phase one..." A female voice broke all of the focus they had put on observing the site of the second phase, directing it instead to the very front of the mysterious building. "Please enter?" The voice was assertive, straightforward. While the most they could see was an exceedingly large man, the tiny figure sat in a couch in front of him could not be missed, as she had been the origin of the voice.

Admittedly enough, none could tell what the second phase would offer to them. Regardless, Reimu and Marisa were the first applicants to step forward, and the four who they had been accompanying soon followed. In fact, Leorio, who scrambled to catch up to Reimu's side proceeded to whisper cautiously towards her, as she eyed him curiously, "By the way, weren't you gonna interrogate the examiner or anything?"

Reimu froze in place, and Marisa was forced to stop a slight distance after her position, looking back with furrowed eyebrows, seemingly disappointed. Other applicants passed them by, while Gon and Killua neared Reimu casually. "If you're taking the exam to get the answers anyway, can't you just pass and get it over with?" Killua suggested with clear disinterest, "Not that I know what you're doing here, but still."

... Reimu smiled lopsidedly, and settled for leaving it at that as she continued to walk. "For now," she added, determined as expected of her easygoing figure, "because there's no way I'd ever fail the exam, anyway!" The surrounding five smiled, the status quo in place, and they reached for the examiner of the second phase then, caring little for what could await them in light of the willpower that would carry them forward, despite the adversity they could encounter.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Damn, this whole chapter was a journey of its own! Chapter 8 was where I did start feeling that I was finally at the meat of the crossover, but this is more of the introduction of the meat. Even then, I felt like this chapter was chock full of content, much more than the initial chapters, which all served to set things up to this point.

As always, I did a bunch of research on this phase, but there thankfully wasn't much I needed to retain for it to be accurate. The Numere Wetlands have mist, but it seems to come and go and by the site of the second phase, it's pretty much no longer there. When Gittarackur contacted Hisoka, he said he was almost at the site of the second phase, but then there's a scene in the anime where he's pocketing the walkie-talkie thing while already at the site. I assume this was Gittarackur checking on Hisoka's location, and not that he'd talked to Hisoka when he was at the forest park's entrance. Similarly enough, Gon and Kurapika, along with Hisoka and Leorio originally took some time to reach the phase, though Hisoka got there before them because he had a headstart. I kept all of this in mind when going about the later scenes, so I do think I'm not being horribly loose with the canon time. For example, the beginning of the second scene has Kurapika and Leorio already running, and the mist starts thicker more or less in the middle of the interaction; this is because the six had already been moving before the beginning of the scene, but only started really talking when Gon piped up with the introductions. Thinking of that, I also gave some time for Hisoka through the separation of Gon and Killua and more conversation between Leorio and Kurapika and Reimu and Marisa to account for Hisoka not just charging like a madman at enemies at the very beginning of the second half of the phase.

Still, the thing I'm most thinking about after finishing this chapter was how I made this part of the series pretty much unrecognisable because of Reimu and Marisa's involvement. Sure, a few tiny parts remained, but this drifted from canon way more than I'd even planned out originally. I actually had a huge range of plans for this section since, unlike the tunnel one, there was a lot you could do with the wetlands: from the animals to Hisoka and the four main characters, there was a lot on my plate. In my roughest plans of this section, Reimu and Marisa wouldn't have even met Gon and the others beforehand, and only would because they would come across Hisoka messing with Gon and whatnot. Though, due to the previous Author's Notes, you more or less know why that ended up not happening (Leorio, the story's saving grace). Then, I thought Reimu and Marisa would accompany Gon and Killua because they weren't well-acquainted with Leorio and Kurapika, only for Gon to worry about the two and making Reimu come to their rescue from Hisoka while Marisa stuck around with the kids. However, because it would be extremely awkward of Gon not to introduce Leorio and Kurapika and just hang out with both them and Reimu and Marisa arbitrarily, I discarded the idea and in going with the flow, Reimu and Marisa ended up with Leorio and Kurapika because it made more sense that they'd leave the two kids alone to have their fun with the phase.

Seeing as Reimu ultimately ended up staying with Gon and Killua and Marisa with Kurapika and Leorio, you can see that the opposite of my plans happened, instead. Reimu dealing with Hisoka was also something I spent a lot of time hypothesizing about: would they have a whole fight despite the exam? Would they not? Would Hisoka go even more bonkers at the sight of her? Just what would go down? Reimu's Fantasy Seal was a good cooling off method for Hisoka, I suppose, and I didn't feel like Hisoka would lose control in this particular instance, mostly because he's had his fill of serial murder. Well, whatever the case, a lot of plans were thrown about, and I found that the chapter became much, much better with every change, even if I ended up scrapping and replacing a lot of stuff. The first scene alone had a huge amount of re-writes. At first Reimu and Marisa were gonna take a nap, then they were just gonna not talk to Gon, then they were but Killua was gonna be mean, etc... I feel like what I have now is really all I needed.

Speaking of, Gon acts out very simplistically, but when it comes to interactions with other characters, he's very prone to putting thought into how to best emotionally benefit the other party (while accommodating for his own emotional benefit aka his pride). I don't really relate with his methods; to me, a lot of how Gon operates borders on emotional manipulation. However, his intentions are never malevolent: I'm talking about instances like how he went on that date with Palm, or all of what he pulled off in the Phantom Troupe arc, combined with him not telling Kurapika about the Phantom Troupe and wishing he'd just stay in sick in bed just so he wouldn't go around getting revenge. Regardless, something more striking about Gon is his never-ending curiosity and love for excitement. This, he shares with a lot of shounen protagonists, but Gon is still a different breed. Not only is Gon observant and not emotionally dense like the usual protagonist, but his love for excitement is more... Primitive than anything. Other protagonists are more into having actual fun (outside of dangerous situations); Gon is more about feeling the adrenaline out of heart-racing situations. I feel a bit bad that I was not able to explore that part as much as I wanted to in this chapter, because it's an integral part of Gon's character. It ended up a bit overshadowed by Reimu and Killua's presence, for better or worse.

Still, I don't put much thought to Gon: it's a bit like writing Hisoka; Gon's a simple kid. I shouldn't complicate what Gon himself doesn't complicate. As such, pretty much everything he does is plain as day, along with all of his motivations. Even so, Gon isn't a flat character, and not just a normal kid who's all friendly and stuff. If anything, I think even Killua's more of a kid than Gon is. Regardless, I found that it made a lot of sense for Gon to want Reimu and Marisa to get along with Leorio and Kurapika so they'd have cool people to hang out with besides Hisoka, but I was a bit stunned by the idea of Marisa getting flustered by a kid. Even Reimu's seen flustered more times than Marisa...! I think Marisa's more prone to awkwardness, and what she did was basically a way to erase the awkwardness and also something to express what she thought of Gon as pretty much a kid being too nice for her own peace of mind lol. Or more like, to adults like Reimu and Marisa, the thought of a kid being so considerate is something they would find adorable, but also something they'd tell said kid off for, because they want to be seen as reliable. In Touhou, Reimu's actually nice to children, and I'm pretty sure Marisa would be no different. Even if ZUN says Reimu doesn't have biases, he means she lacks all biases a human can possibly lack. I find it cool that Reimu and Marisa are written more like people in that aspect; they aren't inhumane in their generally cold attitudes. Anyway, I struggled writing that part, but it was also somewhat necessary.

I at first was gonna make Gon's introductions more intricate, but I felt like Gon himself wouldn't do that to Leorio and Kurapika out of respect for their privacy; he's the kind of kid who actually considers these things. Meanwhile, I was uneasy about combining Reimu and Marisa with Leorio and Kurapika, but I actually started liking a lot of the dynamics, particularly with Marisa. I honestly was fearing Leorio and Kurapika at first because I assumed they'd be very hard to write, but damn, they're actually rather easy on me, especially Kurapika, to my shock. I think it's because Kurapika's the character I can most relate to in the main character cast of Hunter x Hunter, revenge angst aside. It also helps that his collected and dignified disposition, combined with his intelligence make it extremely easy for him to say precisely what you'd want said plot-wise. You want someone to hypothesize logical stuff when Killua's not around? Kurapika's on the job! You want a foil to the other characters? Kurapika's on the freaking job! You want a well-rounded character who can balance being nice with being serious and being cautious? Kurapika. Is on. The damn. Job!

Kurapika is just a really convenient character, and the best part is that he can pretty much work off of anyone. A lot of times I'd get stumped on dialogue, I could just rely on Kurapika to get me back on track. Kurapika is very reserved and he's rather cold, especially after the Hunter Exam arc, but the fact that he cares deep down even if it contradicts his goals makes him a very good character. Kurapika's just a good person, plain and simple, so he's very sympathetic to the point we can be invested in his revenge, even if he's a little edgy about it; after all, he makes up for it by being just as human as anyone else. I'm getting reminded of Naruto, because Sasuke is pretty much a Kurapika rip-off, and this is really where Naruto failed, for example: Sasuke just had a stick so far up his ass that nobody could care about him, especially when he'd just keep being completely and utterly stupid every single time with barely any consequence; he ended up just being a pain in the ass because of his stupid revenge. Meanwhile, Kurapika is not a pain in the ass: if anything, Kurapika doesn't even want to involve other people with his business. He's just a revenge-driven character done right, really.

I felt like Kurapika wouldn't be very cold towards Reimu and Marisa, but not especially care either. Rather, Reimu and Marisa are such freaking aliens that being cold doesn't really pop to mind more than 'what kind of people are these?' so pure curiosity is more prevalent. I think Kurapika's also somewhat curious: for example, he met Gon and decided to accompany him just because he thought Gon was an interesting fellow; he didn't have any basis beyond Gon's likability. It's a bit of the same in this situation, as Reimu and Marisa are interesting, even if in a different way. I'd also talk about maybe how Kurapika's portrayed in other fanfiction, but to be perfectly honest, Kurapika in them doesn't really have much of a presence, even when he's actually there. Since a lot of fanfiction copies the dialogue from canon, too, it's really hard to judge in what way people actually write Kurapika, but it seems to me he's so convenient that even in other fanfiction he's the one who's asking the pertinent questions and moving the plot forward lol Maybe if a lot of Kurapika related fanfiction weren't Chrollo ships I'd have more of a reference! (Kurapika and Chrollo is just... How do you even conceive this?) Kurapika deserves better.

I said I feared Leorio in the previous chapter, but now I really don't, because if Kurapika's the convenient character, Leorio's more or less the life of the party, said party being character interactions. He's also very convenient because he's emotionally-driven enough that he'd pose any questions you'd want, but said emotionality is a double-edged sword because it can also slow down interactions or get in the way, so you need to be somewhat careful in writing Leorio. However, he's really worth writing. He had a rough start with Marisa, but as you then see later on, they start getting along a-okay; it's actually kind of scary how fun the Marisa and Leorio dynamic is. Leorio's got a big heart; he's got the biggest heart out of the main characters, Gon included. This is why he can worry about so many people and feel so strongly about events, and you really feel that Leorio treasures life. Still, I was starting to see that Leorio was being a bit hypocritical, so I made Kurapika set that straight. The thing is, Leorio isn't necessarily reckless, as in, it's not like he doesn't have a sense of danger; it's just that his morals can override said sense of danger if his emotions see it fit. He doesn't jump into danger blindly all the time, like, for example, if he never had to directly face Hisoka, he wouldn't have talked to him at all, but it was because Hisoka was right there in front of him spouting stuff that he felt the need to intervene. I really hope I can balance these nuances in his character.

A thing I note about how Leorio is portrayed is that writers either love or dislike Leorio, and that's reflected in how their OCs interact with him (yes I do dabble in reading OC insert stories): they either treat him like an annoying nuisance, or as the kindest most bestest dude in existence; the latter seems to have surged as a way to counter the former. I get both perspectives, since the original series isn't very kind on Leorio, but I think it's because Leorio's the heart of the group as a whole; the emotional center. This is why that's his focus, rather than his actual fighting ability. He's also supposed to be more of an every man, but he takes on a rather unique identity regardless, a lot like Marisa (who's also supposed to be the relatable perspective in Touhou but is unique anyway). Anyway, I think both sides of how Leorio is seen aren't very accurate: first off, something I've been wondering for a while, why is Leorio written as sexist? As in, going like 'oh why's a chick taking the hunter exams that's dangerous and you're a chick', does Leorio ever even imply that in canon? Not even once! He's a bit of a perv, sure, but he wouldn't assume a chick applicant isn't at least somewhat capable. When he found out Ponzu was his target over at the fourth phase, he didn't just go like 'what? It's a girl, why is she here I can't fight a girl', he took her seriously. As such, I didn't even think Leorio would for a second see Reimu and Marisa any differently from their gender, especially since they're young women who can fly and talk to Hisoka like it's nothing. No way he'd treat them like they're weak. Another problem I see on both sides, whether Leorio is seen poorly or like he's the best thing ever, is that Leorio just doesn't have that down-to-earth, almost comical edge. Leorio's a fun character, but it's like people never have fun with Leorio, even though Hunter x Hunter was constantly using him to be upbeat (more like energetic, positively and negatively) and quirky, but in the way a normal person would just yap on and on; why does nobody do that? Because of it, Leorio just gets boring. Just go wild with Leorio! He's the comic relief for a reason, have fun with the man!

Seriously, Leorio's the kind of guy who up and punches Gon's dad like it ain't no thing, he's the guy who faces Hisoka head-on because he damn can't take it, he's the guy who snaps and the guy who can go all prideful; look at all the things you can do with this guy! Do them! He didn't get the same spotlight he had in the original episode or chapter where he was the one getting involved with Hisoka, but I felt like he was just working so well with the other characters that it's totally okay. Reimu's always a more neutral character than Marisa, so Marisa did a little better in terms of interactions; one of my favorite parts of this chapter is definitely when I cut back to Marisa, Leorio and Kurapika, with Marisa about to throw a bottle of toxic mushroom magic stuff that she legit canonically has hidden under her skirt. Marisa, Leorio and Kurapika were the highlight for me.

Meanwhile, there's Reimu, Gon and Killua. Naturally, Killua was my biggest problem. There is a very clear reason: in the entirety of the Hunter Exam arc up to his match with Illumi, he doesn't face off people stronger than him, and for good reason (unless you count Netero later on, though while he's got the needle on he faces a bunch of stronger people head on like a few members of the Phantom Troupe so he's not absolutely defenceless; it seems more like he'll avoid conflict if possible and react when necessary to his survival). As such, a deviation from the plot in which Killua and Gon are the ones who have to initially face off Hisoka is a huge deal that requires a lot of thought. Originally, Killua was not at all involved with the whole Hisoka thing because Gon was the one who left him behind out of concern for Kurapika and Leorio's wellbeing. So, in the end, Killua arrived safely at the site of the second phase, and nothing happened to him. Here, Hisoka had moved over to nearly the front because Reimu and Marisa were at the back, so Killua got surprised by this since he'd assumed he'd be at the back for easy kills. This forces Killua to be involved, and that was quite a ride.

Incidentally, Gon is a very useful and convenient character. Even towards way strong opponents, he can be really cheeky and that is as fun to write as you can imagine. Just having Hisoka be super threatening and Gon countering that through pure childish logic was kind of epic. Originally, he'd come to save Leorio but Hisoka totally overpowered him in any possible way, which is when he learned true fear, so to say. Or more like that was Gon's first encounter with a creature that kills for fun and so loosely; Hisoka is an abnormality to Gon. I wanted that to come across in how he reacted to Hisoka, and then for that fear to translate as a sort of excitement Gon enjoys. However, even after the encounter with Hisoka in canon, he acts all cheeky, so Gon doesn't really change. Speaking of the source material though, curiously enough, the 2011 anime makes Gon more capable than the manga when fighting Hisoka, prolonging his fight with him and having Gon do all these cool moves. I can get why, because that would show the audience that Gon does have some potential, but I feel like conversely, the point of the manga was that Hisoka was so damn strong in comparison to Gon that Gon could not even continue the fight for more than a minute before he just strangles the poor kid. Which is why there's more impact to the Heaven's Arena arc when Gon does get stronger enough that he can have a more prolonged fight with Hisoka, or something along those lines.

And while I actually had very solid plans of Gon and Killua get a hit at Hisoka, I had to give up, mostly because Hisoka was too stronk and as I thought about it, the point was to escape. In my earlier drafts, Gon and Killua would've gotten the hit on him and ran, but the tactic back then didn't make sense considering Hisoka's power level and most of all didn't even give them an opening to run. Meanwhile, this version has a lot more emotional weight: Killua had decided to make it so Gon could escape first knowing he at least would have the physical prowess to escape from Hisoka on his own... Only to fail because Hisoka was targeting mainly Gon, with Killua only as an extra he couldn't actually roughen up much. Killua was always gonna get on the conflicted side after this showdown, mostly because he kept acting all high and mighty but then failed at everything he was trying to do despite his efforts, but in here considering he was even trying to be altruistic, though he didn't even really understand the extent of his reasoning since he at first thought it was just something he was doing for convenience. But after the convenience is gone, why's he still hung up over it? I don't know, but while Killua is super difficult to write, I did try my best at a bunch of facets of Killua, particularly negative ones on that scene since I could squeeze them out there.

As for Hisoka, I don't think Reimu and Marisa would condone unjustified serial murder (even if Reimu says she does), so they do make a few jabs at him. They've killed before, but the circumstances differ drastically, especially from their own considerations of life. More importantly, Hisoka's dialogue is lots of fun, but other characters don't like it at all. The way he treats Reimu, and the way he'd treat Gon or even Marisa are totally different, but they're all interesting sides to explore in Hisoka. Hisoka and Marisa are an especially interesting combination, and oh damn, that scene with Marisa trying to get information out of Hisoka was the shit. Hisoka just completely ruins everything for her and gets a kick out of riling them all up; Hisoka's always been good at that. In canon, that's pretty much how he usually works: by making his opponent break down mentally, and then physically when he's done. This makes Hisoka especially effective as an antagonist, particularly because he chooses pretty much all of his words when speaking. They all have a purpose. Yukari is also a little bit like that, but Hisoka's motivations are much more clear than Yukari's (*Hisoka is a simple man intensifies*). Either way, feels bad for Marisa, she got verbally rekt.

In that scene where Reimu shows up to save Gon and Killua, the most troublesome thing beyond Killua and Reimu, admittedly enough, was how the hell Reimu would get back to Marisa. Well, I had a bunch of back-up plans, but Gon decided to be convenient and cool to me and got the backdoor idea out so it'd all go full-circle in the chapter. So Gon and Killua went to the Land of the Rear Door, and there was a partially ominous scene with Okina! You end up seeing a lot of what Okina's thinking in there since it's all in her perspective, but I feel like that scene raises more questions than answers, which was actually my aim. Reimu worked pretty nicely with Okina, and that bit at the end with Gon was also very satisfactory. After the scene with Okina, Killua started being easy to write again, so that was also really fun. Killua's half-easy, half-hard, if anything. It just depends on what facet of Killua you're portraying. Even so, since the amount of people talking doubled by the end, I had to really balance out who'd speak and who wouldn't. Still, overall, I'm very satisfied with how it went, and I can only hope the second phase of the exam will go the same way. Look forward to that?


	11. Chapter 10

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - You're welcome! I hope those exams went well! I definitely understand exam blues, so, if anything, I only hope the chapter was a decent enough source of entertainment in the middle of the anxiety! I was gonna add a bunch more stuff to this response about reviewing but I then realized I was doing the same rambling as last time so uh might as well not repeat myself ^^' Anyway, thank you very much for reviewing, as always!**

Since the last chapter, this story got 4 followers; thank you very much! I wanted this posted on New Year's but didn't make it, gah! Still, the backlog's stabilized and I don't have anything special going on with myself right now so I should be able not to be very late like last time. When it comes to the chapters, though, somehow the hardest part is editing rather than writing (and o boi do I suck at proofreading) because I'm actually very stocked up on inspiration, and I've been thinking about that a bunch; I'm considering a beta-reader but then again, they'd be subjected to 20000 words of content every time ='D

Anyway, enjoy!

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 **Chapter 10: The Turbulence and Conviction of the Second Phase**

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On her way to the Forest of Magic, Kasen frowned as she considered where she had been attacked. She had been on her way to the Hakurei Shrine, an activity she had to postpone simply to force that youkai to retreat. Seeing as he did not seem to respond to discussion, Kasen had even considered eliminating him altogether, but he escaped before that was possible. She tried remembering his actions: he would try to lunge at her, attack so as to create an opening; he must have thought offense was the best defense against an opponent of her caliber. However, he was still outmatched, and Kasen was able to dodge his strikes. She recalled the youkai further, hoping for better leads on his location or motives, even if he was likely being possessed by the mastermind.

She grimaced when she reminded herself of the time that had convinced her the youkai himself was using Nen: he had extended his hands, shooting something in her direction when she was mid-jump, and Kasen had been able to dodge. The projectile had effectively been made of Nen and come from the enemy, so she assumed it was part of him rather than an outer force. After she had dodged, the youkai appeared restless, and he had soon escaped, marking a point of confusion to Kasen. While shooting projectiles was nothing out of the ordinary for Gensokyo, that youkai bothered with only one precise shot. What was the intention behind that?

Before she could develop on that train of thought, she was met with a shabby building marking the transition between a normal path to the Human Village and the Forest of Magic, the falling leaves surrounding it uncanny in its displeasing exterior appearance. Kasen recognized the location as Kourindou, the store Sumireko would often frequent as a hangout spot of sorts, as it was the store's only consistent use. She had felt a Nen presence nearby and thought the youkai she was searching for to be heading for the forest, but as she stared at Kourindou vacantly, she wondered if it was possible there was a visit to the store from the mastermind himself.

... Kasen shook her head. _It's not like there's any purpose to targeting the owner, anyway,_ she thought, particularly when she noted the store's obscurity. She continued walking on after realizing that, but the moment she passed squarely by the entrance, Kasen froze in place, eyes wide with shock. "Wait, am I not forgetting something? Now that I'm thinking about it, I did have some business here before I got distracted with searching for Reimu..." She thought back to her actions. Kasen had tried going to the shrine before she was attacked... But it had not been to see Reimu.

Kasen gasped. _That's right, Sumireko...! I was going to check up on her before I got hung up on this incident! She hadn't been able to see any dreams lately, so I was hoping I could see if she's really stopped coming to Gensokyo altogether!_ She turned to Kourindou, another of the spots likely to have Sumireko, and walked quickly for the entrance. Kasen opened the door without hesitation, hearing the ringing bells calmly welcoming the appearance of a new visitor, and saw, much to her blinking surprise, the store owner already busy interacting with an entirely new presence.

"Hm?" was the first reaction coming from Rinnosuke Morichika, who shifted his gaze away from the figure sitting by a corner of the seemingly dusty interior of the store. Then, he frowned thinly as he realized he was seeing someone familiar, though Kasen was still looking to the side in surprise. "Oh, the hermit from the mountain. Is something the matter?" He eyed Kasen curiously, but her own gaze rested on the rabbit yawning, her ears unnatural in their consistency, tall and barely bent; characteristic of only one kind of rabbit that did not belong in Gensokyo.

Even so, beyond the fact that she appeared to be a moon rabbit she did not know of previously, Kasen could not help but spot the large cloth her short arms were grasping without a single twitch of her short, frail arms, another sign of her inhumanity. She could recognize it as a sleeping bag, dark blue in color and tattered in parts that rendered the cotton underneath visible. It was a product of the Outside, fittingly enough for the store, but also, surprisingly, for the figure holding it. Her eyes unfocused, blinking at an abnormal rate, the moon rabbit may or may not have been staring Kasen's way, and the dark circles under her eyes supported the latter hypothesis. Uncertain of how to take the stranger, Kasen mustered a smile awkward in nature as she set her gaze on Rinnosuke. "Ah, well," she uttered, "I was just a little rattled. Incidentally, have you seen Sumireko Usami lately?"

"Ms. Usami? Not at all," Rinnosuke easily responded, letting the polite smile on Kasen's face shrink from the lacking news as he silently blinked, the few seconds left to place a hand over his chin as he continued with a slight sideways tilt of his head: "I have thought it was strange, but has she gone missing?"

"Not exactly," Kasen said, eyeing outdated trinkets near the desk Rinnosuke was positioned behind, "As far as I know, she's doing quite well. Though, she hasn't been appearing in Gensokyo as of late." With a hand over her waist, Kasen glanced towards the moon rabbit, fishing for reactions, but she, in turn, appeared to be staring at Rinnosuke for the same reason, her expression nothing more than a neutral frown. Kasen saw it best to face Rinnosuke then, and his expression seemed almost equally as nonchalant, opposing drowsy apathy only due to the confusion present in the slight creasing of his eyebrows.

"I see," Rinnosuke said if only to fill silence before he could formulate a deliberate answer. He locked eyes with a convicted-seeming Kasen, whose most assertive claim was related to her disappearance from Gensokyo despite its practical consequences. "That's good to know, but, if nothing bad has happened to her, would there be a reason to wonder about her at all?" As such, that gaze was expectant, prying for a response in regards to a non-issue forcing Kasen to visit.

"Wouldn't there be?" However, the first voice he heard an answer for the matter did not register from his line of sight, and instead originated from his side. Additionally, it differed wildly in pitch and tone, high enough to imply femininity and hoarse and dulled enough to convey lacking rest; undoubtedly, it was the outwardly disinterested moon rabbit that had begun speaking suddenly. The intervention warranted Kasen and Rinnosuke to simultaneously turn to the moon rabbit in a quick fashion, and noted no change in her expression despite the confident intonation in her voice. "Sumireko Usami hasn't been showing herself in Gensokyo when she normally does." The moon rabbit narrowed her eyes lightly, as if any further would threaten to have them closed. With a deeper, sterner frown, she continued lowly: "Sounds suspicious to me."

"Do you know Ms. Usami?" Rinnosuke asked, while Kasen only thought of the question in her mind as she watched the moon rabbit slowly hunch forward, compressing the fabric she was holding.

"I've heard about her," the rabbit answered casually, without hesitation in stark contrast to her tired figure, only to pause so as to hum pensively, the conviction appearing whimsical now. The distraction would seem inherent of the fatigue, but she did not quit the confidence, following with a roll of her eyes as she elaborated: "More like I've seen her in my dreams. Other youkai talk about that, too, and some of them don't have a clue on her identity. Wouldn't that get the hermit of the mountain worried about an incident?"

"I..." Kasen grimaced after flinching, the remembrance of forgetting Sumireko fresh in her mind. She cast her gaze to the floor. "I didn't even know of that..."

"Huh, weird," the rabbit remarked with slightly widened eyes, stretching one of her arms out to gesticulate as she spoke: "It was the talk of the day before this recent incident. I think you could use watching out. You said she was fine even though you haven't seen her in Gensokyo...?"

"Something along those lines," Kasen said with lacking tone and vibrancy, only to place a hand over her chest, choosing to face the moon rabbit and Rinnosuke then. "But, even if something were happening with Sumireko in the Dream World, it wouldn't be something we can handle."

"Then again...?"

That dulled voice urging Kasen to speak was from the moon rabbit, who forced her to think again of her own claim with a slowly fading frown. _Well, we wouldn't be able to handle it, but..._ "If I called _her,_ I could get some idea of the situation," Kasen muttered, knowing simply from the sensation that the plan in her mind and its execution were the source of her smile, stretching simply. While Rinnosuke was tapping a finger softly against the wooden desk, as if pensive enough not to note the action, frowning in a display of veiled disinterest, the moon rabbit off to his right mimicked Kasen's expression with unexpected ease.

"Well, you do that," the moon rabbit said before letting the sleeping bag fall to the floor, allowing her to stretch her limbs like one would the moment they awoke. Afterwards, refreshing smile intact, she stood from her seat, eyes still on Kasen. "I've seen what happened the last time the Dream World was involved in an incident. You could argue there's no difference between dream or real selves, but I'm sure that's not what you'd say in her position."

"You're rather invested in the topic," Rinnosuke commented as he watched the moon rabbit duck to take the sleeping bag back, "despite not knowing Ms. Usami personally." The moon rabbit, meanwhile, was already looking towards Rinnosuke as she was standing upright again, even as she slung the sleeping bag over her right shoulder.

"I just feel for her," she said, "being trapped somewhere, with no way out. Submitted to the rules of something she never chose to be a part of." The moon rabbit started walking away without warning, passing by a confused Kasen who even turned around to see her go.

"Do you have nothing else you need?" Rinnosuke asked in the spur of the moment, leading the rabbit to stop in her tracks and shrug.

"Nah," she responded, her voice surprisingly gentle, "I'm good. Thanks again, Rinnosuke." The bells resounded faintly again, and the moon rabbit was gone from sight.

Immediately, Kasen faced Rinnosuke with a thin frown. "Could you tell me who that was? She seemed awkward, for lack of a better word."

"That strange rabbit? She was the first customer I had in a long while," Rinnosuke answered quickly and cleanly, unable to suppress the traces of a winning smile. "If she comes back, I certainly wouldn't complain."

"She was a customer? So, that sleeping bag with her..."

"It was a product for sale in this store. Though, I never really thought it would sell when I found it like that. As far as I can tell, she seems to have some attachment with things from the Outside World," Rinnosuke explained without reservations, staring mainly at the door rather than Kasen as he pondered. "But most of all, she tells me she has problems sleeping. That wasn't the only thing she bought."

"Well, that does seem appropriate," Kasen vacantly remarked with a slow nod. "Still, considering what she said, she looked a lot like she knew what was happening to Sumireko." Her eyes narrowed as she pondered with concern, she continued with a hint of politeness: "I'd pursue this further, but I happen to be busy looking for another youkai because of the current incident, so could I have you watch out, instead?"

Taking longer than necessary to process the request because of his own thoughts, Rinnosuke blinked, and only reacted after about three seconds: "Huh?" His eyes were fixed on Kasen for clarification, and Kasen, as if noticing that, created a pleasant smile to match her words and clasped her hands.

"I can call someone who knows a lot about dreams here, so I would really appreciate it if you could sort the rest out for me," Kasen said, taking the fewest steps back with every saccharine word, "I'm sure Reimu would have another burden off her shoulders, too, and she's already so busy now. Since you're always so unoccupied, it wouldn't be such a hassle now, would it?"

"I _really_ don't see how **—** "

"A-anyway, I'll be counting on you!" Kasen left the store quickly after her own interruption, hearing Rinnosuke sigh in the background of her departure, but her mind was wandering to the moon rabbit she had met. Against all expectations, she had claimed Sumireko was trapped when she had also claimed not having seen or met her until she saw her in her dreams. Suspicions rose considerably the more she thought about it, but as that could only mean she was involved in whatever predicament Sumireko was supposedly in, Kasen decided to focus on the youkai she was looking for in the Forest of Magic, hoping to get to the bottom of her past situations once and for all. Simultaneously, Kasen hoped Rinnosuke would be kind enough to truly find a way to save Sumireko for them, seeing as he was her only hope.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Admittedly enough, neither Reimu nor Marisa expected the theme of the next phase of the exam to be something as simple and ordinary as 'cooking'. The woman sitting on a small couch in front of a gigantic man had shouted out that theme proudly, with an assertive voice and a bright smile. Conversely, a tense mood permeated the applicants, though they did not voice their internal complaints or doubts as openly. Reimu and Marisa, on the other hand, glanced to the side when they processed Leorio and Kurapika speaking to each other, but were otherwise distracted with their own matters as they pondered on the exam. _Cooking's fine and all, but what kinda cooking are Hunters expected to do? No way Hunters are all supposed to be pro chefs,_ Marisa thought, only to look down at her injured arm. _Still, with my injury, I'm at a disadvantage on this one, especially if it's something difficult._

Meanwhile, Reimu's lips curled up into a small smile the more she pondered on the challenge. _Cooking, huh... If it's just cooking, it can't be that hard._ Her gaze convicted, Reimu's body was almost preparing to move with the way she was bending her knees, even despite the fact that she would fly if extensive running were demanded out of her again. All of the applicants' eyes were set on the two examiners, hoping not to miss the tiniest detail of the phase's rules. "My order is a pig roasted whole," the man, Buhara, uttered with a conversational smile, "It's my favorite! As long as it's from this forest park, you're free to use any kind of pig you like." Reimu quickly nodded, while Marisa's eyes were slight wide from the surprise of the simplicity of the requested dish, which did not even constitute as a dish to her. Then, she joined Reimu in smiling confidently, and Buhara's own smile had widened. "With that in mind, let Phase Two begin!"

At the same time as Buhara had shouted that, a gate to the applicants' right was slowly opening, making it clear where they were all meant to go. The 107 Hunters-to-be dashed for that gate, while Reimu and Marisa floated above them. When they saw Gon and his friends, Marisa and Reimu waved at them, and received curious stares from Leorio and Killua and a friendly wave as a consequence for their actions. "We'll go scouting for the pigs and warn you, so make sure you help us afterwards!" Reimu shouted the moment she slowed her flying speed to match the people she was speaking in, and she looked down with her entirely body hovering horizontally, her stomach facing the ground. She was crossing her arms regardless of her position, keeping her red shirt and winter scarf still behind them as she she noted Leorio as the first to snap his head up.

"Huh?! Help you with what?!" he shouted back, his eyes wide due to the angle encouraging that when identifying Reimu and Marisa above them. With a grimace, affected by the inconvenience, he continued louder: "Aren't you basically omnipotent with your magic?!"

The first reaction from the two, flying roughly at the height of the top of the sturdy walls that had surrounded the exam site, was tilting their heads to the side, uncertain of what to even voice out as a response. However, her smile intact, Marisa lowered her broom to near herself to Leorio, and said by his side while sending glances towards Reimu, "We don't have a clue how the roasting machines over there work and Reimu will throw a fit if you leave it to her, so just make it happen."

"So, basically, you're bad with technology," Leorio muttered blankly as his eyes met Marisa's. Marisa's smile was lopsided then, and she shrugged in response to the blunt summary. _More like we're clueless about this world._

"Though, how are you going to warn us?" Kurapika asked meanwhile, and Marisa faced him with a wink.

"You'll know when you see it," she said, her two hands nearing her puffed up chest as if faintly gesturing to herself. "It's gonna be magic, after all. Anyway, see ya!" Marisa's broom floated back in a quick burst, and she waved their way as she joined Reimu. The four were looking at them, but only Gon seemed to be bothering to wave back with a grin.

"Good luck scouting!" His parting words resounded as the clearest show of support they were given, and it warranted a gentler smile from both Reimu and Marisa considering whose support it was. They nonetheless advanced after Reimu responded in kind, briefly as expected of her one-track mind set on the exam, and Marisa was to her right now, looking down from her broom as they flew. The park abounded with trees, leaving only certain open spots in which attributed more visibility to the uneven nature of the location in terrain. From the little they could see, there were few bushes only near the trees, and some would bear orange fruit, but the majority of spotted animals so far were nothing more than small birds.

"Still, a pig, huh..." Reimu uttered absent-mindedly as she surveyed the forest area she was currently hovering over with careful, though tired eyes. "Since we're supposed to search for the pig ourselves, I'm guessing this phase of the exam is as straightforward as it seems. Well, I'm definitely not complaining; it's exactly what I wanted."

"You thinkin' it's a test of our hunting skills?" Marisa questioned, her eyes equally fixated on the ground below her rather than Reimu. "But these Hunters aren't normal folk. They're all Nen-users, remember? It can't be that straightforward."

"Can't a bunch of Nen-users go hunt like normal people? As far as I'm concerned, if that big guy wants a whole pig, he'll get one and that's the end of that," Reimu countered with a brief roll of her eyes, her smile as if deterrent of any doubt.

"That's fine and all, but what about that woman sittin' in front of the big guy? She's gonna have something to test us with, and it can't be as easy as his if it's being saved for last," Marisa stated, though her expression did not indicate any pertinent worry. Instead, her eyes were narrowed pensively, and her thought stretched as far as simple caution, as prevention was always welcome.

However, Reimu was impervious to danger to begin with, so she merely waved her arm dismissively. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," she loosely responded, "Besides, she said that the phase was all about cooking the dishes they want until they're too full to taste any more. As long as we just cook well and faster than most people, there's nothing to worry about. Though, considering your arm, you'll have a tougher time at that than I will." Reimu glanced at Marisa before setting her sights on the opposite direction, now with a grimace more telling of her concern than her casual words did.

"Heh, don't I know it," Marisa said while raising a determined fist. She had not been looking at Reimu, and was instead smirking as if conversing alone. "But I'll still try, 'cause if I told Hisoka I could build a tower outta cards, I gotta be able to cook, too."

"Huh... Well, good luck with that."

"By the way," Marisa stated when she suddenly frowned, her gaze vacantly on a flat area of the forest covered in bushes, "you took Gon and Killua to Okina's place, so Okina's met them, right? What'd she say to that?"

Reimu sighed as her first reaction, and placed a hand underneath the left side of her chin as she pondered. "Well, she was almost going to scold me because she thought I was bringing them to Gensokyo half-heartedly," Reimu explained, "but when I told her I was in a hurry, she got that I was still on duty and got us three through just fine. Though, now that you mention it, there was something strange about Okina's behaviour back then."

"Huh? What was it?"

"She said she didn't mind if I brought more people over," Reimu responded, "and considering she was just as wary as I was when I first got in with Gon and Killua, she's definitely plotting something out of that." Reimu then narrowed her eyes towards another open area, from which something appeared to reflect from the ground. Since that would not normally correspond to the skin of a pig, Reimu chose to ignore it, but kept her eyes on that particular area, expectant of results. Even so, lacking in traces of her expectation, she was as if glaring at trees in consideration of the topic at hand. "Really, she and Yukari are way too similar for my peace of mind. I suppose that's what it takes to be one of the sages."

"That _is_ weird, though," Marisa remarked. "How's it any beneficial to Okina if people from over here visit?"

"Who knows? I don't make a hobby out of understanding that sort of troublesome mindset," Reimu vacantly responded, only to halt her movement entirely. "Look, over there." She pointed to her left, in the direction of what Marisa had initially perceived to be an agglomerate of trees out of many others in the forest park.

When she squinted, holding a hand above her eyes to block the sunlight, Marisa saw the slightest hint of dark pink in the middle of the normal forest scenery. Marisa followed Reimu as she floated down in order to approach the suspicious pink tint conspicuously contrasting with the greens of the forest, and from the way Reimu was now smiling triumphantly, Marisa was quick to assume she had supposedly found her prey. The simple flash of color had taken a more substantial form upon Reimu and Marisa's flight closer to their position, and round, large bodies constituted as part of a kind of pig the two had not exactly been expecting. "That's one huge pig," Marisa commented as she took in not only their height, which was the equivalent to half of a tree's trunk, and the curved, tall snot that served to cover a comparatively small forehead. The pigs' eyes were tiny, and their ears the size of a normal pig's, but Marisa's words had reached the group of pigs, and their gazes were affixed to her flying presence.

"They're definitely not something we have over at Gensokyo, and we have a lot of awkward things there," Reimu added as she counted the number of pigs in her line of sight. They totalled around six pigs, while Marisa was tracking more in the horizon from the start of the open area they had found, flat until a clear ledge defining it.

"These things are chewing on bones," Marisa flatly stated from pure disbelief clouding her sense of emotionality. She had taken a moment to process that, wondering if just how different pigs were from the ones she was familiar. "Did they fuse with a dog or what?"

"Now this is something I'm glad I don't have where I come from." The ground was a somber brown, which contrasted with the eerily pristine bones scattered through the area. Reimu's scowl was indicative of her displeasure, which she kept even as she looked towards Marisa. "Still, they're not reacting to our presence because we're in the air, so I suppose you might as well warn those four we found them."

"Gotcha," Marisa stated, only to take her weapon from her pocket and shoot up a simple laser towards the sky, causing the slightest of breezes that rustled the surrounding trees. Still, the pigs remained, even if stepping the slightest bits away from Reimu and Marisa's position. Marisa stored the miniature furnace while staring at Reimu, and was flying slowly away from her. "One of them's gotta be there to see it. Then again, since these huge pigs are probably carnivores, wouldn't they be in danger facing animals that size directly? I should be a little farther away to spot them before the pigs do."

"Then I'll be checking if they move elsewhere, and you make sure they get to the trees," Reimu said, landing on a tree branch most lacking in fruit. She removed five red paper charms from her person, holding each between her fingers, but she simply crossed her arms and leaned against the trunk of the tree with a frown. "I'd be taking them out already, but if I do that, they'll probably start running away."

"You've got that right." Marisa glanced aside, and her eyebrows furrowed with the passing few seconds she pondered. Facing Reimu now, she said, "Also, those four aren't the only ones who'll have seen the laser. You think we should do anything about that?"

"Why would we? If they're any good for passing, they should be able to solve that themselves," Reimu said dismissively. "We didn't have any better way of reaching them, anyway."

"Well, it would've been pretty bad if I went out to the woods searching for them," Marisa said, "So, guess we'll just have to believe in them. I mean, Gon and Killua haven't even broken a sweat through this whole thing. You'd think kids'd need their sleep the most and they're just fine; kinda jealous, to be honest." Marisa wryly smiled, as if uncertain as to whether she should be amused or sour over the matter, and saw Reimu nod in a similar manner.

Expecting Reimu to utter the last words of their brief conversation, Marisa was distancing herself further from Reimu's position, with Reimu saying, "True **—** "

Interrupting the ending conversation, however, was the small thud coming from a ledge near the pigs, from which two human figures could be seen as the origin. Reimu and Marisa, along with the animals they had been previously observing fixated their gaze on that area, though Marisa and Reimu could not help their shock when they recognized the children sitting on the bottom of the small ledge as though they had simply let themselves fall from it. "Found them," Killua announced sitting behind Gon, who clearly could note the fact himself, but the statement was met with a nod.

"Just like Ms. Marisa was telling us," Gon said, and even from afar a small smile could be verified from the boy. He watched the pigs with innocent, blinking eyes that further quickened the heartbeat of the two adults frozen in place.

... The first to break from the shock of the circumstances was Marisa, who shouted, "The hell are you doing over there already?! Those pigs are carnivores!"

"Hm?" Gon rose his head to note the trees, and spotted Marisa with his eyebrows slightly arched, curiosity brimming from the shine in his gaze.

"See? They're right there," Killua said while lazily pointing towards Reimu and Marisa, as if uncaring of the warning.

It was then squeals resounded in the area, and the two boys blinked with vacant frowns, regarding the pigs instead of Reimu and Marisa. "Get up on the trees, now!" Reimu shouted with urgency evident in her higher pitched voice, and Killua was the first to disappear. Gon jumped after Killua, his reaction time slowed because he had been used as support for Killua's quick departure, and by then, the pigs had been rushing for that ledge with clear killing intent.

"How about you warn us if we had to deal with a violent swarm?" Killua retorted beside Marisa, who flew back slightly in surprise.

"That's not human speed," Marisa commented with widened eyes. One tree away from Reimu, Killua was standing on a branch just as tall, at arm's length from Marisa's broom. He showed no reaction to the remark beyond a judging glance, since Gon's arrival directly to his right garnered his attention, particularly since Gon was frowning. Though he was standing on the branch, his feet stepped in the same spot as if not to lose the momentum to move at any moment's notice, and he hopped in reaction to the first sign of turbulence from the pigs' side.

The tree Killua and Gon stood upon shook from sudden collisions from multiple sides, and after the four looked down to note the clear origin, at least four pigs were stepping back to attempt another charge. "They look angry because we stepped on their territory," Gon said before turning to Killua and Reimu, roughly at the same direction, "I'll go warn Kurapika and Leorio about this, so keep them distracted!"

"Right! We'll handle this!" Reimu exclaimed, removing her back from the tree and brandishing her paper charms. The pigs appeared uninterested in her position, so she began to float, and neared herself to Killua's position. Reimu had bothered sending one glance to Gon, who was quick to depart through the trees by jumping from branch to branch undeterred. Meanwhile, Killua had a hand lazily laid on the trunk of the tree as he faintly looked towards Reimu perfectly still despite the shaking of the tree, his apathetic expression indicative of the lacking effort in his distraction.

"You left Kurapika and Leorio behind?" Marisa asked from the side with slight confusion in her voice, and Killua turned to her with a hand in his pocket, contrasting with the other.

"It was Kurapika's idea," Killua said, "I thought he was worrying too much since you're witches and all, but he was right in having us get a head start. Still, these pigs aren't the smartest kind, huh?" Due the tree's movement, the orange fruit on the smaller branches was falling to the ground, and as three hit a pig's head, rendering it motionless after recoiling, Killua narrowed his eyes. "Wait, though, that pig's dead, isn't it?" Marisa was directed to the pig by Killua's words, seeing a mark of the hit by the fruit in the downward curve caused by the impact. Most of all, slowing movement of the pigs, with the ones nearest smelling the body and stepping away, Marisa frowned.

"Doesn't look like it's breathing, if anything," Marisa said.

"Then these pigs are way weaker than they look," Reimu added as if disappointed, lowering the arm she had been readying to throw her paper charms with a grimace.

"But it's not like the fruit didn't hit the pigs before," Killua said, "and they're still alive." They watched the other pigs, wary from the scream of agony of one of their kin, and while only one rammed his tall nose onto the sturdy tree, the fruit that fell contact its back neatly and rolled off of it to the ground, while the pig was unfazed. Others smelled at the corpse, but three still remained by the tree's edge.

"Basically, the head's the weakness," Marisa said. "That's it, right?"

"No doubt about it," Killua uttered casually before pointing to his left, "There's another corpse over there." The pig shown through Killua's call to attention was just as motionless as the other, and was surrounded by three others, just as wary. Marisa nodded in acknowledgement of the evidence, particularly when two of the unknown orange fruit was near the legs of one of the pigs that was alive currently, and its position was just next to the corpse's head.

"Well, that doesn't change my point," Reimu retorted while storing her paper charms, "If they have a weakness like that, I suppose I won't have any trouble passing this phase."

"Half of it, at least," Marisa said, "Besides, they're getting away from here. What now? Wanna set up a seal or something?" Just as Marisa was conveying, the pigs, now hesitant were stepping back slowly, some already reaching the trees outlining the end of the open area. Marisa had seen Reimu put her paper charms back, but upon facing her with that question, Reimu's hand stopped as if to process her next course of action, a convincing enough sign that she could change her mind.

"I don't think you're gonna need one at this point," Killua said and led Reimu and Marisa to follow Killua's gaze once again, towards the ledge from where faint thuds could be heard.

"We're here!" Gon shouted from behind the tree Killua was on, but none of the three turned around to greet the new presences, and instead were fixated on the arriving figures, smirking at the sight before them. All of them bearing number tags on their chest, the one most prominent was an applicant familiar to Reimu, whose red scarf swayed along the fast breeze from the jump down the ledge to meet the pigs. He was immediately noticed, and the other applicants were just as assertive before they truly saw the size of the animals that had stopped in their movement to process the new figures.

"That laser sure came in handy! We're passing this phase for sure now!" one of the applicants exclaimed from behind the group of individuals driven by self-interest, and the claim echoed in the minds of the main perpetrators of the circumstances.

Reimu and Marisa, consequently, had no discernible emotions reflected on their gaze beyond apathy, unable to react verbally to the redundancy of the applicants in the area, challenging their plans. As if to make sure someone would break the cold, awkward mood on the tree, Marisa shifted her gaze to Killua, whose hands behind his head were only indicative of his easygoing nature. "This is all your fault, you know?"

Marisa grimaced, her shoulders slumping with regret. "I'm sorry." She was the first to admit her shortcomings, but after meeting up with Leorio, Gon and Kurapika at the base of the tree, and Marisa informing them dejectedly of the current events, Reimu's first word to them was inexplicably an equally-worded apology.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Joined with dozens of other applicants, Reimu and Marisa, along with the four they had met on the First Phase, had very quickly dispatched the amount of pigs necessary to leave the area, as two had already been felled by mere fruit. Marisa and Killua had been the first and fastest at claiming those corpses, and watched from above as the rest managed to hunt for the main and only ingredient of the test: Reimu, with a single needle, was the first to join Marisa and Killua, with Gon following close behind using only his fishing rod; Kurapika and Leorio struck at the pigs' heads with a wooden sword and a small briefcase respectively, while Marisa slowly clapped when Leorio proudly waved their wave. However, to Marisa and Reimu's awe, as all had been so easily wrapped up, the four took each of their pigs, hoisting them up above their heads with two stretched arms. The quickest to accomplish that feat of sheer physical strength was Killua, who lifted his catch as though it were a mere plastic ball, and stared at Gon who lagged behind, grunting as he applied enough force to do the same. When the pig was over his head, Gon's grip was steady, and he smiled towards Killua. "How the...?"

Before they knew it, Kurapika had already been done carrying his own carcass, and Leorio's clumsy movement did not stop him to somehow dash for Reimu and Marisa's proximity with the huge corpse hovering over him. "Hey, I've been thinking about this for a while now, but how's Marisa gonna carry hers? Her broom'd break if she could even put it there," Leorio said, grimacing due to the mental image. His gaze rested on the corpse next to Marisa rather than Marisa herself, but she was certain he was not distracted, but simply taking in the situation.

"I'm not even the only one, though," Marisa said as she glanced at Reimu, who had squatted so as to reach out to the pig. She grabbed at it from the stomach and back with both arms, and attempted to force it up. Her efforts, however, resulted in nothing but the slight twitching of the corpse, who only managed to be off of the ground by the height of Reimu's waist for about five seconds before Reimu breathed out.

"How is it even possible to lift this needlessly huge thing?!" Reimu uttered in exasperation, now trying to push it from its rear leg with a timed application of her full strength from second to second. She did manage to drag it through the ground, but the noise of it against the dirty caused Reimu to flinch, dropping her hold on its leg to look down with a hand hovering near her mouth from concern in regards to the pig's condition.

"She's better at leg strength," Marisa muttered in Reimu's defense, albeit smirking as she did so. "She apparently used to kick heavy balls and everything **—** "

"Marisa, we have to think of something! I can't just fail over something like this!" Reimu argued as she stomped towards Marisa, her fists notably trembling with anger and anxiety in equal measure.

"Don't you two have any magic you can use?" Killua offered, "You can't expect to waltz into the Hunter Exam without at least rivalling this kind of strength." He lowered and rose the pig above him to display his point, while Reimu and Marisa blinked vacantly. Just as before, the speed with which he would perform the feats of strength was equivalent to what both would be capable of if applied to carrying a piece of paper, and that fact had them grimace.

"We don't expect humans to just handle this kinda weight with their bare hands," Marisa retorted.

Meanwhile, Kurapika, his eyes calmly closed for a moment before locking with Marisa's, hummed pensively, only to say, "Well, if you can't carry the pigs with your bare hands, it would only be logical to give up on doing so and instead try to create some sort of tool to help you, or even something that can surpass the strength necessary to carry them through sheer propulsion."

"Propulsion?" Reimu questioned, "What are you trying to say?"

"I highly doubt you would have time to build a wagon of sorts that could let you safely pull at the pigs, and the process would be still be slow considering your base physical strength," Kurapika explained, "but in your arsenal of supernatural skills, you could perhaps have something that could emulate this effect with added force. In other words, if you could find a figurative horse to pull the pigs with enough force that you could quickly reach the test site, and have something akin to a carriage able to support the pigs, you could solve this problem."

"Huh..." Marisa uttered as she slowly nodded, considering the information packed in Kurapika's hypothesis with eyes lightly widened with awe.

Meanwhile, unimpressed, Reimu kept a grimace and crossed her arms. "Well, like you said, we can't just materialize a wagon out of nowhere," she said, "So, even if we had the propulsion or whatever you call it, without the other part **—** "

"I got it!" Marisa exclaimed without warning, her sole arm hitting the back of Reimu's shoulder from the excitement. Her hand remained there while Reimu turned towards her with her mouth slightly open as if having failed to react quickly enough, while Marisa offered her one of the brightest grins she had witnessed since her arrival in this world. "Reimu, we're passin' this test!"

"R-really?" was Reimu's first response to Marisa's enthusiasm at a point Reimu was still processing it, but she was quick to smile just as brightly met with Marisa's straightforward gaze. Reimu offered Marisa a thumb's up with her left hand, the one opposite of the shoulder Marisa had grabbed, and finally smirked with pride rather than mere joy. "Good job, Marisa! I knew it'd be worth it bringing you along!"

Marisa chuckled faintly, her smile wry in light of Reimu's energy. "That's not what you were telling me before," Marisa remarked in passing, only to face the other four, having let go of Reimu. "Anyway, do any of you got any rope? Something like that?" She stepped in particular towards Leorio, who held a small briefcase on his arm hanging by the handle over the back of his elbow.

However, the one to first voice a response was Gon, who stood nearest to Killua, by Kurapika's right: "I've got a bunch of string for the fishing rod in my backpack," he said, "Does that count?" Marisa turned to him with some surprise belied by her arched eyebrows, and she took a few seconds to wonder on Gon's words as she stared at him. In fact, just like Marisa, Gon carried a backpack, with each strap over his shoulders, yellow in color. She had paid it little mind before, but noting the genuine and helpful suggestion, Marisa nodded, even if hesitantly.

"Uh, sure. Probably," Marisa concluded vacantly, her smile wry. Gon squatted and lowered the pig to the ground afterwards so as to reach for the backpack, and Marisa scratched the back of her head as she watched the immediate action. "Sorry for making you drop the pig, by the way. And thanks, I guess."

"Oh, this much is nothing!" Gon exclaimed as his backpack was set on the ground, and he assumed a kneeled position. Before opening the backpack, however, he turned to Marisa and spoke with curiosity: "Are you gonna tie it to the pigs?"

"Yup," Marisa answered, "I want them _real_ tied up, now. I'm pretty sure I can do the rest myself, so I just need help with the string, if anything."

"Alright!"

The contextless explanation seemed to satisfy Gon enough to allow him to focus back on his backpack, and he was now without hesitation in opening it and thrusting his hand inside to search for its contents. Killua had looked down to peek with a playful smirk, while Kurapika and Leorio were attentive to the general surroundings, but Reimu had set her sights specifically on Marisa. Reimu was still smiling, as if free of concerns, but the vacant shine in her eyes was one of pure interest as she walked for Marisa's side and interjected, "What are you planning, anyway?"

It was a simple enough question that she expected an answer right away, but when Marisa faced her, she was silent. Then, her smile widening, her hand moved for her skirt, and Reimu frowned from the growing confusion. However, despite noticing that, Marisa removed the mini-furnace from her pocket, brandishing it with a casual upwards throw, watching it twirl in the air. "Something you know well," she answered, and somehow, Reimu did start piecing everything more concretely together.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

 **"Blazing Star!"**

By the time Marisa was shouting that, Reimu was not the only one entirely aware of her plan, but she certainly was the only one to be staring at its consequences with neutrality, even after Marisa took flight. The string tied around Marisa's bamboo broom, wrapped around so many times and in such a tight manner Marisa's anxiety about it loosening as she ordered Reimu around was more than palpable in the process, connecting, in fact, to the two pigs belonging to Reimu and Marisa to be cooked whole for the first test was the first sign of the insanity that Kurapika had averted his eyes from with a frown lopsided with concern until he heard a distinct sizzling sound and Gon gasping from admiration. Marisa, who had been holding her eight trigram furnace with a single hand, pointing it diagonally towards the ground, had noted the normal reactions of her weapon when it came to the magic she prided herself in: glowing lightly in white from the small hole, and quickly becoming almost burning hot to the touch. From the miniature furnace, then, a white laser of gigantic proportions had as if released itself from the small object in need of wider space, and the five surrounding Marisa had quickly jumped back.

"Woah, what the hell...?!" were the only words Leorio managed to utter in his awe and shock, contrasted by a whistling sound originated by Killua, who was smiling as if amused. Gon was the other of the four able to mimic that express, though conveyed more innocently with his palpable admiration.

"Wow...!"

It had been at that precise moment the expected spellcard had been uttered, and Reimu said to the other four, "Let's go so Marisa doesn't stand around waiting for too long." It took her company admittedly a few seconds more than normal to react to her suggestion, and she was already flying off to chase Marisa by then. What the four left behind witnessed, as such, was the laser, directed progressively upwards after Marisa's complete and swift disappearance from the area, completely incinerating the trees that happened to be within range. The ground had been levelled, and screams from applicants who had scrambled to dodge the massive attack, succeeding if only because of the laser's slow movement. Only after processing these utterly destructive effects had the four followed Reimu, but they never managed to catch up.

Instead, in their rowdy trek through the park, they had arrived to the test site with their own pigs with Reimu by the entrance, impatiently tapping her foot. At her desperate behest, Leorio had taken to telling Reimu and Marisa how to operate the equipment gifted by the examiners for the test, while Gon and Killua, after setting their own pigs, had rushed to Marisa, with Leorio and Kurapika accompanying them at a similar pace. It was with that moment of pleasant conversation that it sunk as an undeniable truth that Reimu and Marisa would pass, and so would those who helped them. They had looked around, noting their surroundings: around twenty applicants had been with the six, and more were coming. Even after the first applicant to pass gave his entry to Buhara, the examiner, it was eaten in a matter of minutes, and he even claimed to still be more than starving. Reimu and Marisa delivered their own dishes with confidence after they were roasted, and Buhara was quick to offer them an approving smile and a upward thumb that had them smirking as they turned around.

With a high-five, they proceeded to celebrate the fact that they passed with flying colours, and when they met with Gon, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika, they had already been done delivering their pig dishes before the two because of their head start provided by their knowledge. Though, the awe from sheer space available in Buhara's stomach to consume seventy different roasted pigs left them with only that very topic to discuss before the end of the first half of the exam was announced by Menchi. "Unlike Buhara over here, I'm as selective as can be, so don't expect anything less than a strict evaluation!" she claimed with a hint of pride before swinging open the large door beyond the couch she had been sitting on before the start of the second phase. "For the second half of Phase Two, I decided to have you all make sushi!"

A good portion of the applicants before her flinched from shock, while others vacantly stared her way in apparent confusion. Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa glanced at each other in a mix of surprise and unease. _Sushi, of all things...? Sure, it could've been worse since this is a whole different world, but how the hell are we gonna make it turn out good and pass this phase? I've never made sushi in my whole life...!_ Marisa thought, her desperate gaze practically expressing a desire for Reimu to help with her predicament. However, seeing as Reimu was bitterly frowning, it was clear Reimu was just as inexperienced at making sushi as Marisa was. _Not that it's any surprise; Gensokyo's got no sea and the other kindsa fish it does have aren't somethin' Reimu and I'd bother buying off the village to make sushi of all things._

At the applicants' clear show of bewilderment, Menchi smirked as she entered the large room that she had just opened the door to, while Buhara motioned them to follow her. "Heh, you don't look too good now. Well, it's not all that surprising seeing you stumped over what kind of dish this is considering it's unique to a small island to the East." _Wait, does this world have Japan, somehow?_ Marisa blinked, unable to process something like an alternate Japan so readily.

Meanwhile, Reimu was surveying the area she had just entered, but was coming to no conclusions on it beyond the fact that it was stocked with tools for cooking, some of which she was not entirely familiar with. "So, I'll give you a few hints!" Menchi exclaimed, "Take a good look through this room!" She then outstretched her arms, though the applicants were already taking note of the surroundings with great caution, hoping to find some clues as to what 'sushi' could possibly be. "This is where you'll be making the sushi!" _That only makes things more confusing than ever,_ Reimu thought as she eyed the nearest tap on one out of many counter tops lined out the same way. "We arranged the bare essentials and the very best tools for you, and we even provided you with rice, an absolute necessity for the dish you're making. And lastly, I did tell you to make sushi, but the only kind of sushi I'm willing to try is nigiri-zushi!"

 _Nigiri-zushi, huh... The rice is already here, but we'll need to get the fish ourselves, from the looks of it._ Reimu glanced to the room's exit, where the forest awaited her and all of the applicants. She had not spotted any source of water that could provide them with fish, so she immediately assumed that it was located farther than she had flown before. She then looked towards Marisa, only to sigh. _How Marisa will make it out of this one is beyond me..._ "Anyway, let the second half begin!" At the very moment Menchi shouted that out, many of the applicants in the front began to move, Reimu and Marisa included. "As you know, the phase will be over when my stomach's full! Though, in the meantime, you're allowed to make as many attempts at the dish as you like!"

By the time Menchi was speaking that last sentence, Reimu and Marisa had rushed out of the room, perplexing a few of the applicants that they had passed by. To them, her voice was faint in the horizon, and they cared little for those words as they figured it would be a waste of their time to continue listening when the phase had already started. Among those who kept staring at Reimu and Marisa flying in the air, seen only as small shadows by that point, were the two examiners, Hisoka, and the four that had been spending time with them before their departure, all of them with the very same conclusion: Reimu and Marisa knew what the dish was. However, that itself was heavily suspicious to Hisoka in particular, who decided to spare only a dismissive glance to the cooking facilities before following after them on foot with a smirk on his face.

The only other applicant fully knowledgeable on the dish had barely paid mind to Reimu and Marisa, conversely, as he was too distracted with his own bubbling pride in the advantage he held over the rest, and the people around him were equally busy glaring his way for his failed attempts to suppress a knowing snicker. Regardless, his course of action was wildly different, as he was focused on the rice rather than the outside. Killua, observant as he knew he was, noted that just as well as he had noted Reimu and Marisa's trek outside. As such, he spoke: "Well, those two definitely forgot us this time. Think one of us should follow Reimu and Marisa?" His suggestion immediately gathered the attention of the three, who had yet to disperse due to Reimu and Marisa's questionable course of action. "That way, we'd know what kind of ingredients they're getting, so we'd have an advantage."

"It seems like I wasn't the only one to conclude Reimu and Marisa are familiar with sushi," Kurapika remarked in a calm fashion, only to grimace. "Aside from Hisoka, that is. They're probably out looking for fish, if the little I remember about sushi is accurate."

Leorio's eyes widened in shock as he stepped back from the other three incredulously. "Fish?!" Then, he pointed at Kurapika accusingly, his eyebrows creased from sheer doubt. "How the hell do you expect Reimu and Marisa to find fish for the sushi in the middle of a forest?!"

While Gon shushed him with his index finger over his mouth, Killua's hand twitched as though to resist varying urge. Meanwhile, Kurapika shouted, "You're being too loud, Leorio!" Then, he froze in place, realizing he, too, was being far too loud. In a hushed voice, he continued: "There could be a lake or a river in the forest, you know...?!"

However, it had been too late. All applicants had looked towards Leorio, some flashing triumphant smirks. Seeing that from the corner of his eye, Killua could not help but sigh. "Way to mess up my plan..."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Found it!" Marisa shouted meters away from Reimu, who seemed tiny from her perspective. "There's a river over here!" After some time of wandering side by side, Marisa had thought of splitting so as to quicken the pace of the search, and the effort provided results now, with Marisa waving both her arms around to make her position known to an approaching Reimu.

"Good work, Marisa!" she shouted back, "I'll be right there!" Hearing that, and certain that Reimu knew her position by now, Marisa began to land, lowering her broom slowly onto the forest as she watched for a spot wide enough to allow for it between the trees that was not part of the stream of water she had found. Doing so forced her to take in the river she had found, small in width and not especially deep, but that was precisely why it was ideal for Reimu and Marisa, who did not possess fishing tools that would allow them to catch fish in vast water. Either side of the river contained an abundance of rocks, pebbles and tiny branches, with the grass being distant enough not to be visible for Marisa when looking straight down.

By the time Marisa was finding an opening in between two smaller trees, Reimu was already next to her, having likely flown at her highest speed for efficiency. Marisa proceeded to hop from her broom to one of the tree trunks' side, away from the rocks, and she pointed to the river when she took the broom, using it to extend her arm's reach. "See? You're all set for fishin' now," she said with a bright smile, and turned to Reimu with a matching gaze, seeing her step toward the shore.

"It does seem like it," she said with a nod, and squatted to take a better look at the water's surface. Faintly, Reimu could spot her own reflect in the foreground of many trees, with the slightest signs of movement within; she narrowed her eyes. "Not that we really know what we're fishing for. Though, I suppose any would do if they wanted it to be here."

"How simple-minded. I happen to like people like that, but..." Reimu had stood immediately then, and faced the direction opposite of the river to see not only Marisa's back, but also the rustling of bushes ahead of her. Reimu made sure to defensively stomp for her friend, taking her side, and as expected, Marisa's eyes were just as wide processing a voice that should not have been there. Reimu scowled finally, since the expected individual was revealed before her as none other than Hisoka, who continued to speak while walking closer to their position: "Have you considered that there was no clue this time precisely so you would need to narrow down the specifics yourself?" When Hisoka stopped, he was roughly a few centimeters farther than arm's length from the two, offering a smirk more than expected from his playful demeanor, half-lidded eyes focused on Reimu before she had done the same.

"Since when were you here?" she flatly asked, her eyes tinted with the slightest hint of an accusation. She had truthfully not heard his first words when arriving when it came to their content, so she crossed her arms, thinking of the wasted time.

"From the very beginning," Hisoka answered with more neutrality than expected, his voice low and flat as Reimu's question despite his expression. While Reimu remained silent due to genuine confusion, her eyebrows furrowed as the only sign, Marisa grimaced.

"Nobody likes a stalker," she retorted as the only input she could give to the fact, as her squinted eyes were more than enough to convey her covert disgust.

Hisoka closed his eyes as if to avoid that judging intensity, shrugging lightly instead in face of the circumstances. "It looked like you knew about the dish I was supposed to make, so I had no choice."

"You admit to being a stalker, then," Reimu commented without hesitation, having only thought it over after saying it and even still frowning thinly.

"For now, at least," he stated, almost ominously so; neither of the two were willing to pursue the meaning behind those words, so silence settled on the area for a few brief seconds. His eyes opened then, simultaneously to the fading cheerful edge in his smirk as he eyed even Marisa with interest. "By the way, it's rather strange you know about the dish to make for this phase, all things considered. Weren't you two from another world?"

"If you're gonna question that, you might as well be wonderin' why we're speaking the same language," Marisa calmly argued, though she was grimacing, faced with Hisoka's clear doubt, "How come all these people who speak Japanese not know about sushi?"

The legitimate question warranted time to be considered by Hisoka, who allowed himself a display of confusion weaker than his own curiosity. With a single eyebrow arched, he questioned slowly, as if to test the new word, "Japanese? Is that what you call the language you're speaking right now?"

"Of course it is," Reimu responded, "it's the exact same language everyone's been speaking so far, but you somehow write completely different from back home. It really makes navigating restaurant menus troublesome, you know?"

"Also, how the hell is there an alternate Japan in this world when everybody's speakin' Japanese already? How does that even work?"

More than even the barrage of equally as pertinent concerns about the current space-time, none of which he had nearly enough time to think or care to think about, Hisoka processed the facts through Reimu and Marisa's pinpoint indignant tones of voice, which matched perfectly with the unfaltering gazes fixated on nothing despite being directed at him: all marks of the simple act of ranting, aimed not at Hisoka but at their own minds that had yet to find answers. He recalled Marisa's past testimony on Gensokyo, smiling with true amusement before saying only to swiftly progress with the conversation, "Who knows? The fact that multiple different worlds exist is already enough of a mystery, as far as I'm concerned."

The statement was met with a huff from Reimu, who frowned as if unimpressed by the response. "It's nothing special where we come from."

"So I heard," Hisoka said, glancing knowingly at Marisa. Naturally, she had reacted to the reference, her stance as if less guarded from a bout of dejection, likely because she knew Hisoka's words were deliberate in intent, and not something she wanted to confront. Hisoka noted, however, more than simply a displeased expression, and had his eyes on the cast that was currently devaluing her existence before looking towards Reimu, his eyes narrowed to the point they would seemingly be better off closed. "Incidentally, Marisa can't pass this test. What are you going to do about that?"

Marisa was certainly the first to perk up from Hisoka's words, phrased as the imposition of a fact more than even a taunt with the use of a more assertive and straightforward volume to his usually low voice. With even his playful smile akin to a conversational one, fitting for a nonchalant introduction of a topic, Marisa, despite her initial flinch, looked aside after blinking in confusion. She now scowled facing nearby trees, and her choice to refrain from intervening was more than obvious. Meanwhile, Reimu shot back quickly, "Me? I'm catching as many fish as I can, and I'm sharing them with Marisa so she can at least try. Not that it's any of your business."

Hisoka spotted Marisa's scowl fading into a smile when she heard Reimu, perhaps from the unexpected support; or even because Marisa knew all along what she would say. It was regardless notable that Reimu's convicted gaze, now not even straying from Hisoka's eyes with thought conveyed her lacking will to change her mind, he conceded the matter with a needlessly saccharine smile. "I see," Hisoka said, "You're quite the optimist. But then again, so am I." He followed the remark with a low chuckle, thinking back to Marisa's decision to leave the response to Reimu as defensive, but certain in its guarantee to succeed. Currently, Marisa was looking back in Hisoka's direction, though her eyes were slightly downcast, thoughtful; a state of mind needing little attention on Hisoka's part. In light of Reimu's impatience, Hisoka continued to speak: "Well, I'll wish you two good luck regardless. I'd be more than glad to hang around you for the rest of the exam, but it looks like you've found yourselves other people to be your company, so there wouldn't be a place for me there, unfortunately. I'm more the reserved type, you see; crowds aren't exactly my style."

"Good," was Reimu's immediate response to the casual announcement, as if a snap. She glanced at Marisa the same way one would roll their eyes, and glared at Hisoka afterwards, waving a hand as if in rejection. "It's not like you've got any use at this point. Even Marisa's more helpful than you are: she's actually made it so I could pass the first half without getting me to lift a finger, but you're just a nuisance."

"Ooh," Marisa uttered before hissing in a cheap imitation of a burning sound, one of her eyes closed heavily for added effect. "Now that's gotta hurt."

Reimu's straightforward comparison seemed to further lift Marisa's spirits, as she now stared Hisoka's way defiantly, but the information from Reimu sparked his interest more than that, enough that he could smirk with full, genuine satisfaction. "Honest as always," Hisoka said as a way to quickly fill silence, true though it was. "Still, it isn't like we'll never speak again, so I'd look forward to that next time if I were you."

"You're an optimist, alright," Marisa retorted.

"Anyway, we've got fish to catch so we're not about to waste any more time with you," Reimu stated and Marisa nodded in agreement, "Don't get in our way if you know what's good for you."

"Seriously though, don't," Marisa added before she followed Reimu, who had stepped away from Hisoka without bothering to hear his response. He had none, so it was even convenient enough that he could turn around and ignore the disrespect entirely, walking away to put even more distance between himself and the most alluring applicant in the exam; which, considering the selection, was saying a lot, fortunately enough. Moreover, it appeared nothing yet contradicted Marisa's information, and the more he would come to know about Reimu's whereabouts, the better for future reference, should the opportunity present itself, and he was sure it would.

... Regardless, when Hisoka looked to his left to find the rivers shore, he could not help but frown. Though he knew now they were looking for fish and that he would likely need that ingredient as well, what even was sushi, really?

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Eventually, Reimu and Marisa were faced with the arrival of more applicants than they were expecting, and the river was packed with those attempt to fish alongside Reimu, who had already caught two different types of fish. Marisa had been able to explain the phenomenon of the crowded river through meeting up with Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio, who had just as quickly rushed for the first water source they could find: due to the missing ingredient for the test being leaked in their conversation, the applicants headed for the forest, and the six were now reunited to chat as they fished. In an effort to increase their chances, it was unanimously decided that all spoils of fishing would be shared between them, so that there would be no need for concern were one to run out. As such, Leorio, who had brought with him a recipient to hold the fish in the form of a bucket from the exam site made use of it to store the results of the hour the applicants took fishing, and the six returned to the site early and in high spirits.

In fear for Marisa's well-being were she to cut herself with the unbelievably sharp knives left on the ccounters considering she could only use her left hand, Reimu offered to handle the fish while Marisa would set up the rest, moulding the rice, pressing it and adding whatever other ingredients and spices necessary to the dish, as they, too, were visible on top of the counter. Even so, Kurapika and Leorio would occasionally send glances towards Marisa's clumsy movements, and she was too focused on her task to notice. In the same way Reimu's trembling hands would hesitate in her cutting after she would scale the fish until she would stab at it with a scowl and decide on a size, only to stop to think, Marisa was just as hesitant in touching the rice, particularly since it was difficult to have it all in her hand and coordinate her fingers to make the appropriate shape. Due to that, she had it left on top of the counter, and she would slowly nudge it, her grimace indicative of more than her sour mood.

While endeavoring to observe the two people who supposedly knew more than he did on the theme of the phase, Killua stepped between Reimu and Marisa's spots suddenly, and they jumped back from the shock and their previous anxiety. "Do you two even know what you're doing?" The inquiry was straightforward and assertive, with a hint of bitter frustration; it had Reimu and Marisa freeze afterwards, unable to even protest when it came to Killua's movement.

"Kinda...?" Marisa sheepishly smiled, but Killua's glare only intensified in face of the lighthearted response.

"We know how the thing looks like, but we never made it before," Reimu added as she glanced at the slices of fish she was planning on adding to the rice Marisa had set aside for her.

"Well, just knowing how it looks like is already amazing enough! The examiner didn't even taste our tries!" Leorio interjected from a corner of the cooking facilities. He was next to Kurapika, whose dejected, almost blank gaze conveyed nothing but the despair of having previously seen his honest attempt at sushi be flipped upside down with the plate, sent flying beyond his reaches. He was busying himself with rice, but it was clear that he had ran out of ideas, while Leorio's energy was the same as ever, and he was paying close attention to Gon and Killua, and Menchi, who was on the opposing corner throwing away more rice and fish combinations that seemed to defy common sense. "Is it all rectangular like you're making it?!"

Marisa looked down at her own work and her smile further contorted with consideration for the fact that at least Leorio seemed to think it looked even remotely rectangular. "I think so, at least," she responded while adjusting its shape slightly more, and blinking as she confirmed she had a feeling that was likely not how to have the rice ready at all.

"Didn't you know how it looks like?" Leorio's eyes narrowed processing the low volume of Marisa's faltering response, suspicious evident in his gaze. Marisa scratched her left cheek with a single finger as if nervous, while Reimu placed her knife back on the counter and faced Leorio with a hand placed on her hip.

"It's not like we see sushi that often," Reimu countered, "Besides, it's usually all expensive so I've never eaten it in my life, much less wasted ingredients on it!"

"I don't even think there's been a sushi place in the village for years now, though," Marisa said, her frown nothing more than despondent, and she stared at her handy work intently.

Meanwhile, Reimu tilted her head to the side, with a hand supporting her chin as she absent-mindedly said, "Ah, now that you mention it, the sign's changed on that shop, hasn't it?"

Killua glanced at Marisa, and then at Reimu, and when his eyes finally settled on the counters belonging to Reimu and Marisa, they were remarkably hollow, though his right one twitched as his eyebrows furrowed. "You're basically as clueless as Kurapika over there, then."

"I have severely underestimated the intricacies of cooking..." Kurapika muttered in the background of the discussion, and Leorio patted his back in a feeble attempt to cheer him up.

"Speaking of..." Gon said equally without warning from Reimu and Marisa's left, though he had always been there, next to Killua staring at the counter and failing to think of a new idea. When the three turned to him, now blinking in curiosity, they saw Gon point their way with a frown, as if confused. "You three are the only ones who haven't presented anything."

"That's because they haven't made their sushi yet," Killua promptly responded, "and I'm not about to give something I'm not sure about to the examiner when I've got two people who know how to make it." Then, he shot a glare to Reimu and Marisa. "Or _should've_ known how to make it, anyway."

"You could always not copy us and deal with it yourself," Reimu retorted.

"And you could always just use your magic and have the sushi thing appear in front of you."

"If only," Marisa and Reimu stated in unison as their first reactions to Killua's ideal solution, their voices cold from the lacking hope in their cooking performance.

"Take a look!" The exclamation coming from Menchi's direction was far too loud to be ignored, however, and the six turned to note the bald applicant who was displaying his tray of nigiri-zushi with an added exaggerated bow. "This is real sushi!" He extended the tray to the small table in front of Menchi, who took it with a smile.

Reimu, too busy noting she could recognize the applicant from the first phase, had a lacking reaction to the turn of events, while Marisa was the first to speak: "Damn it," Marisa muttered as she stared on with a scowl, "We should've just copied off that guy."

"Tell me about it," Killua hissed her way, leading Marisa to scratch her head with a bashful, apologetic smile.

"Is that how real sushi looks like?" Gon questioned.

"Well, nigiri-zushi, at least," Reimu answered, though her eyes had not drifted away from Menchi and the tall applicant, whose triumphant grin seemed to be announcing his implicit victory. Needless to say his confident stance and loud demeanour had garnered the attention of every applicant from the very beginning, especially as it was widely known that he was familiar with sushi. However, the mood of the room changed immediately upon Menchi's shift in expression, and the applicant's grin faded from the confusion brought upon Menchi's vacant eyes affixed to his.

She handed the applicant the plate, and loosely stated, "Nope. It doesn't taste good." The bald applicant did not process that statement so readily. He took in her gaze, entirely casual, only to glance towards the emptied plate. The sushi had been tasted, and Menchi's verdict had no changes despite the passing seconds.

"Guess we couldn't copy from him after all," Marisa remarked in a quiet voice, while Gon nodded to the claim.

"Wh... What?!" Finally, he had began to shout as an expression of his disbelief; Menchi's eyebrows raised in a show of conceited doubt. "All you need to do to nail nigiri-zushi is add wasabi and a slice of raw fish to rolled rice! That's just how easy the dish is! There's no difference in taste no matter who makes the thing!" Reimu and Marisa glanced each other's way, while the rest of the applicants were staring at the one who had just graced them with the phase's solution involuntarily. Said applicant sensed those gazes, which caused him to snap his attention to the side and listen to the contemplative voices of his rivals marveling at the simplicity of the dish they had previously no knowledge of. The sight was enough for the bald applicant to swallow needless air in an almost soundless gasp. "Crap...!"

Yet unaware of the downward spiral the applicant's mistake would cause them, Reimu and Marisa's thoughts were centered on nothing but the fact that they now had more competition to deal with, and a row of other applicants who could present their versions of sushi faster than they could. In fact, some of them were already hard at work with their versions, Leorio included. The others, such as Gon, were intently observing the exchange between Menchi and the bald applicant, though it could hardly be called an exchange considering the one-sided nature of Menchi's unfiltered ranting. As much as the applicant had attempted to match her intensity, not even he was able, and he left Menchi with his plate in low spirits.

From then on, plates upon plates were tasted and mercilessly returned in spite of their identical shape and cooking method. Menchi's critique would echo through the room, weighing down on each applicant, giving way to a dread more significant than the one originated from the first phase, deadly in its own right. To Marisa, the prospect of failure was already haunting her mind, but when she had finally finished her own version of nigiri-zushi along with Reimu, each of her footsteps rang strongly with the dread of hearing Menchi's feedback. Reimu, on the other hand, was pondering her options already, her expression of an unreadable coldness that other applicants could all too well relate to, had they noticed it. However, Reimu's burden was of a larger scale than her own position in a foreign society.

The moment Reimu and Marisa stepped beyond the crowd of applicants urging for their sushi to be tasted, Menchi's head cocked up to face them directly, her gaze sharp and alert. While Marisa's stance was not in any way aggressive, as she displayed only a bitter grimace hiding her apprehension, Reimu's eyes were of an almost deadly apathy; one that Menchi could not read past. Regardless, she took her plate first and muttered, "Let's see here..." With one hand, she carried the sushi to her mouth and chewed it for a moment, only to shake her head. "The fish slice is too thick; you didn't cut it properly. Next!" Reimu grabbed the plate back from Menchi with a sigh before walking away to try her hand at the dish once more, unwilling to give up.

Marisa was soon to return the very same way after being told that she had failed to properly press the sushi, likely due to her injury. "You might as well try again next year since there's no way you'll get it right with that arm," were her precise words, enough to leave Marisa nodding to herself wistfully. _Not much I can do with just my left arm if it's makin' sushi. Guess I'm not passing the exam._ She had accepted that reality, but did not feel up to succumbing to the boredom of standing around, doing nothing but observe the failure of the rest of the applicants. As such, she had assembled the rice and fish again, with a convicted Reimu by her side.

"She'll see...!" It appeared that Reimu's disposition had recovered, with Gon lining up almost perfectly with her current determination. Meanwhile, Killua was the same was Marisa, simply watching from the sidelines after figuring he had no chances of satisfying Menchi. Uninterested eyes briefly shifted to Leorio and Kurapika, who were hard at work in vain, as far as he was concerned. So was Gon, but Killua had been unable to convince him, so he could not help but watch in boredom in face of a trial he found unfair. Then, he looked past Gon and took in Reimu's clear gaze: there was no hesitation, or needless thought; that was the gaze of someone with an absolute objective. _Not that she'll get anywhere with this. It's not a matter of skill anymore, after all._ To Reimu, that had been hard to grasp, even as she faintly processed Menchi's voice from afar.

"Sorry," Menchi lightly voiced, "Stomach's full already!" The innocent smile stunned the nearby applicants, while Reimu froze momentarily. Marisa and Killua spotted other applicants scowling, expressing justified anger, but Reimu had only turned to the side in order to better listen to Menchi, though her eyebrows were creased and her stance tense. While Killua was unfamiliar with Reimu, Marisa frowned at prospect of a livid Reimu, something she had the faintest feeling she would witness now. "Which means Phase Two is officially over with a total of zero applicants passing to the next one! Try again next year!"

The cumulative sounds of whispers and snide remarks permeated the area, mostly to fill the hole created by the pure disbelief caused by the situation. In the middle of it was Reimu, who walked for Menchi's position at a fast rate, uncaring of the applicants blocking her path. With otherworldly agility, she passed through them as though flowing water, and Marisa followed suit almost clumsy in an attempt to catch up. "Menchi, we can't just have no applicants passing because of the taste," Buhara argued, "the point of the phase was **—** "

"Be quiet, Buhara!" Menchi shouted, only to abruptly stand from her seat and look to her left, where Reimu revealed herself from the crowd with a wooden weapon in hand, from which paper fell. "What are you trying to pull now?" The Purification Rod was then pointed to Menchi accusingly, and Reimu glared in her direction without concern for her leaking presence of danger. "I'd put that down if I were you. You'll regret it otherwise."

"Look, I don't care about failing or passing the phase at this point," Reimu asserted, "Tell me all you know about Nen, or you're the one who's going to regret it!" From behind her, three orbs of light materialized, their colours representing the ying and yang. The sudden surge of power had Killua tense from reflexive caution, while Marisa grimaced as she figured Reimu was likely just as livid as she feared she would. "Do you Hunters keep tabs on every Nen-user? Have any of them gone missing? And if you don't know, do you have any way to track fellow Nen-users? What kind of power is that stupid foreign thing?! You'd better spit it all out!"

Further whispers resounded in the area. "Nen...? What the heck is she talking about?" The confusion was immeasurable, with even the four Reimu was acquainted with voicing curiosity and concern for her sudden violent turn. Only Hisoka appeared unfazed, a deep contrast to the bald applicant nearby who had voiced the previous question to begin with.

"Reimu, wait! You could be disqualified for that!" Leorio's voice pierced through the quieter sounds of wary discussion, but failed to garner Reimu's attention. She was entirely focused on Menchi and Buhara, mostly because they did not afford her the time to be distracted now that she had incited the conflict.

As such, the one to give Leorio a semblance of a retort was Killua: "The phase is already over. They can't disqualify somebody who isn't an applicant anymore."

"Reimu is probably aware of this, too," Kurapika added from Leorio's side, his gaze strangely somber as he took in Reimu's ardently determined expression, conveying a sense of duty beyond the boundaries of normalcy. "She knows that she has nothing to lose, and is planning on ending things here as a result."

"Ms. Reimu..."

Meanwhile, Menchi's expression was but a cold frown. Buhara, for once, seemed to mirror that very stance. "We don't know what you're talking about," Menchi said, "but if you don't leave us alone, you won't get away from here in one piece."

"You're lying," Reimu promptly countered, "and I won't stand for it. I've got my reasons for pressing on! If you're not going to tell me the truth straight up, I'll beat it out of you!" The ying-yang orbs swirled around her, and Reimu's eyes immediately saw the quick movement of Menchi's arms for the knives previously sheathed on her waist. They had been removed in the blink of an eye, with only a few applicants able to even see that she had moved to take them before they even processed they were in her hands.

Even so, they could sense the tension in the air; the tension inherent of a duel. It rendered most silent, uneasy, and some stepped back from an instinctive fear of collateral damage. Special cases were coldly evaluating the situation, sizing Reimu up from her fighting stance and resolve. However, before Reimu or Menchi were able to charge each other's way, someone had appeared to block their paths in only a split second. Killua's eyes widened considerably from the surprise, and he looked to the side in order to search for the bald applicant, who was no longer in his original position. Instead, he had somehow moved even faster than Menchi had for her knives, to a point most had been unable to fathom his actions until they saw his arms stretched out, and both of his eyes just barely catching both Menchi and Reimu at the same time.

In quick retaliation, Menchi swung the knife on her right hand upwards, affording him no leeway to duck from the attack. The applicant was forced to jump back, but his eyes were locked onto the knife on Menchi's other hand, which was pointed to him threateningly. "Don't get ahead of yourself," Menchi warned him in a low voice, "If you think you can cover for her and live, you're wrong."

"I wasn't covering for number seventy seven," the bald applicant promptly stated while glancing at Reimu, as if to confirm the tag number. "I was stopping you from getting sidetracked." From behind the bald applicant, Marisa sighed in relief. _Least it wasn't me who had to do it... No way I'd wanna face an angry Reimu and that bloodthirsty examiner._ "Whatever this Nen stuff is, we've got nothing to do with it. So, if anyone is gonna protest, it'll be someone who's pissed at failing this phase, because that's what needs fixing." His every word accompanied the high tension, reinforcing it due to the equally threatening stance the applicant was taking, as though he were just as prepared to fight as the two young women before him.

... Meanwhile, blinking in surprise from the interruption of the applicant she found familiar, Reimu hesitated to brandish her weapon, though she protested, "Hey, my business with her is just as important as **—** "

"My phase 'needs fixing'? You all failed fair and square!" Menchi countered over Reimu's own exclamation, her gaze now entirely affixed to the bald applicant, "It wasn't my fault your sushi was so unappetizing! I don't want someone who doesn't know a thing about cooking telling me what I should and shouldn't do with my damn test!"

"You think failing everybody here is fair and square?!" he argued, "How the hell is the sushi's taste the thing that decides if we should be Hunters or not, anyway?!"

"A baldy like you wouldn't understand!"

"It's not just him who doesn't understand this stupid test!" Menchi snapped her head towards an additional applicant shouting from the direction opposite of Reimu's. His stature short, but robust, it was clear he possessed considerable strength, though, as Killua noted immediately upon laying eyes on him, he could not possibly compare to Menchi, Reimu or the bald applicant in skill. The applicant's eyes were sharply focused on Menchi, and his skin seemed to darken almost through the pure fury coursing through his veins, reddening his complexion. "If anything's gonna make me fail the Hunter Exam, it won't be cooking!"

The following argument was not being accompanied by Reimu, whose fists shook from unstable anger. Marisa had noticed that immediately, and knew better than anyone that the situation had led her to feel that way; ignored entirely despite her enthusiasm. "Hey," Marisa uttered, hoping to garner Reimu's attention. "At least the exam might just start up if they nag her enough; no need for battlin' the examiners then." Marisa flashed her a smile, albeit a weak, wry one, and watched as Reimu glanced in her direction with a raised eyebrow. She seemed to almost question Marisa's remark, but, unwilling to spend energy on the endeavour, Reimu ultimately sighed as though tired of the continuous events.

"But I'd honestly rather beat them up and get what I want," Reimu argued in an unenthusiastic voice, one that was barely audible by all but Marisa, who was nearby.

"I know that much, but it's not like this is Gensokyo," Marisa said, "You could get a serious injury if you beat up so many people. Besides, it's not all so bad right now."

"Isn't it? It feels like beating around the bush." Further showing her lacking fighting spirit in face of the circumstances, the ying-yang orbs around her faded, and she finally lowered her weapon with a grimace, seeing Menchi only from the corner of her eye. As it stood, the argument continued, and Buhara, in his attempt to intervene, was passing what appeared to be a phone similar to some she had seen in Heavens Arena.

Noticing Reimu's lacking focus, Marisa tapped her shoulder, leading Reimu to look at her with arched eyebrows, confused. "You're just bein' like that because you're all in incident-solving mode, but it's already been at least a month since you came here. What's the use in being constantly like that at this point?" She shrugged to further relay her point, and Reimu tilted her head slightly to the side, faced with Marisa's question and pondering on it. Naturally, no catastrophe would happen in a mere moment, but time was precious enough that her job was a priority. However, in a situation there was nothing for her in Gensokyo in regards to the incident, and it was impossible not to take a long time outside of it to investigate, would her priorities only backfire? For once, Reimu seemed crestfallen, directing her eyes to the floor.

"What a dull way to go out after taunting the examiner like that. Couldn't you have killed her?" Then, hearing a voice not from Marisa, not from Gensokyo, Reimu was pushed back to reality, shifting her gaze to the source of the voice. It was located near Marisa, with more than a single person walking in her direction. She saw Killua as the fastest to go, both his hands on his pockets, and she knew he had likely been the one to initiate conversation. Gon was in tow, while Kurapika and Leorio were behind them at a calmer pace; the three were looking at her as though concerned, their eyes narrowed in a gentle fashion.

The show of sympathy had Reimu scowl at first, and she raised her Purification Rod when she processed what Killua had even told her in the first place. "If that bald guy hadn't gotten in my way and derailed everything, maybe I could have," she snapped, only to glance to the side, with no changes to the situation. She sighed, lowering her weapon again. "Things really haven't been going my way lately..."

"Wait, you were gonna kill her?!" Leorio questioned, stepping back as if cautious.

"I was just going to give her a beating, but it's close enough," Reimu dismissively responded, her voice lacking in energy.

"If anything, she was looking way more murderous than you were," Killua said, the fact somehow warranting a smirk. Killua was already positioned next to Marisa, who was close enough to Reimu that she could always reach out to her. Gon was next to Killua, but he stepped forward now, locking eyes with Reimu.

"But, why did you even need to fight her, Ms. Reimu?" Gon asked, seeing Reimu blink in curiosity. "What's Nen, anyway?"

"That's what _we_ wanna know," Marisa answered in Reimu's stead, "The most we gathered was that it's some weird power this world's got and that Hunters have somethin' to do with it."

"And since that examiner was a Hunter, I was just about to extort the information out of her instead of bothering with the exam," Reimu added before glaring towards Menchi and the other applicants, "if everybody just read the mood and didn't ignore me."

"That's strange," Kurapika remarked, "While I read a lot about Hunters, I've never once seen this Nen concept mentioned anywhere. Do you have proof that these two things are related?"

"Nothing concrete," Reimu said, "but that's what we're taking this exam for. Besides, Nen isn't known by the general public, so it's no wonder you don't know a thing about it."

"Don't worry, though," Marisa added while gesturing to herself proudly, "We don't know anything, either."

"That's not very reassuring..." Kurapika dryly commented.

"Still, you're talking about something as outrageous a Hunter conspiracy, you know? If you don't have any proof, how'd you know it exists?" Leorio asked.

"We know it exists because we witnessed it ourselves," Reimu answered. "You have Nen to thank for Marisa's broken arm, by the way."

Marisa grimaced when she felt the five's gazes on her, their intensity unpleasant especially when coupled with the apologetic edge of their frowns. She scratched the back of her head as she awkwardly stared back, only to say in a paused manner, "And the burns. Those also hurt."

"And you think a Hunter was behind Marisa's injuries?" Kurapika questioned, his voice low as if somber.

"It could be somebody else who just happens to know Nen, like Hisoka," Reimu said, "but according to him, the conventional way to learn Nen lies in being a Hunter. It makes sense to assume all Hunters, or at least most of them, know Nen."

"Huh? Wait, what did you just say?!" While Reimu's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, unaware of why Leorio would be so shocked, Marisa was noting the situation with the examiner and the other applicants, which felt so distant from her already. Even as Menchi was angrily shouting to the phone about her decision, she seemed to be sneaking glances to Reimu, and Marisa knew the conversation was being heard, or at least acknowledged, by her. Though, Marisa figured, she was likely not silencing her so as to not prove Reimu's point, as it would be suspicious to interfere.

"You didn't hear her wrong," Killua interjected in a nonchalant voice, all the while his focus was faintly on Hisoka, whose eyes were closed as he smirked from the back of the applicants listening to Menchi speak. While it did appear his attention was on that, Killua was certain he was being just as attentive to Reimu's words, and had positioned himself on the very back of the crowd of applicants just to listen to Reimu and the others, who ended up in a similar position. "And if Nen is some kind of magic, it wouldn't surprise me if Hisoka could use it."

"You may be right about that..." Kurapika locked eyes with Reimu, his expression cautious, hinting at genuine concern. "But additionally, you were told of the relation between Hunters and Nen by Hisoka. Can you be sure that he told you the truth, and didn't simply guide you to the same location as himself with ulterior motives in mind?"

"I can't," Reimu said, shaking her head. Now, she smiled wryly, pondering while speaking: "The only thing supporting this idea is my intuition and a few tiny leads. Still, this is as far as I could get in my investigation, and I need anything I can get."

"I see..."

"Does that even matter, though?" At the sudden question, its meaning vague, the other five shifted their gazes to Gon out of curiosity. Gon offered them a smile in return, entirely unfazed by the attention. "I mean, to be honest, I'm pretty thankful to Hisoka, whether he told the truth to Ms. Reimu and Ms. Marisa or not. If it weren't for him, they wouldn't be here at all."

... Reimu and Marisa glanced each other's way, uncertain on how to react to Gon. It seemed as though Gon simply was the kind of child to very bluntly announce his thoughts on other people. While slightly flustered, what coursed more through their minds was the inability to entirely agree with Gon's reasoning, but they could understand the benevolent intentions. "Well, sure" Marisa said slowly, still in the middle of processing her own words and trying her best to phrase them nicely, "but I wouldn't go as far as thankin' Hisoka, in my opinion." _Not when he's such a deranged psychopath._

Reimu nodded along Marisa's words and offered some of her own afterwards, unable to even smile as Marisa had: "True. So far, he's caused me nothing but trouble, this exam included."

"Still, you wouldn't have taken this exam if you weren't sure you could get something by the end of it, right? If you've got a brain in that head of yours, that is," Killua interjected staring straight at Reimu, though his vacant gaze was nothing but casual, and he appeared more curious about the hypothesis than anything. Seeing Reimu glare at him as intended, he smirked, and watched as she began to wave her arm around in accordance to her anger, specifically the one wielding her weapon of choice

"I happen to have one," Reimu retorted indignantly, her words conveyed quicker than normal, "so I _did_ take the exam knowing it'd give me leads no matter what I did. I mean, if I became a Hunter, I wouldn't need to worry about running out of money while travelling around, and I'd have the credentials to snoop around wherever I want. Besides, if Hunters have something to do with Nen, I'd know the moment I became one."

"... Didn't you only figure all that out after you set out to take the exam? You know, when you talked with that guy **—** "

"I-it wasn't like things were progressing as they were, anyway!" Reimu exclaimed in hopes of silencing Marisa, now even flailing her arm around as she did so. She was not looking directly at Marisa at that point, and her eyes were set to the side, even if they weren't truly processing the state of the second phase. Now, distracted by the conversation, Reimu pointed at Marisa accusingly, taking a stand by the end to make sure she seemed just as assertive as normal. "We also need a change of pace every once in a while!"

"Then that's that," Gon concluded as suddenly as when he previously entered the conversation, while Reimu was as if forced by instinct to look down and see Gon smiling at her.

"Huh?"

"You're taking the exam because of leads, but also because you could use a breather. Isn't that just as valuable? If you just keep thinking and thinking, you'll hit a wall eventually, so you might as well take it easy. The Hunter Exam is interesting on its own, after all! Let's have fun with it together!" Gon stretched out his arm by reflex in his enthusiasm, implying the invitation he was claiming in his explanation. On the other hand, Reimu's eyes had widened in face of the simple logic, and glanced at Marisa, reminded of the previous topic she was going over with only her; when she was starting to find some sort of dejection in her methods. She overlooked the rest around her, and Killua, Leorio and Kurapika had roughly the same kind of expression: smiling with a hint of familiarity, their gazes set on Gon. Reimu looked back at Gon, grinning unrelentingly in her direction, and smiled in return.

After all, when she really thought about it, she had left Heavens Arena so willingly after knowing of an alternative exactly because she knew the different ordeal would be a worthwhile investment, even if to break out of a boring routine. Then, after the convenient detour, she would return renewed, with more information in her arsenal, and able to claim she had at least never been bored throughout. "I suppose you're right about that," she uttered, even if slowly, staring at Gon with more than a simple gentle expression towards a child, now with conviction shining as strongly as Gon's. "If I'm already here, I'll make it worth my time. Though, if it turns out we all failed the exam without any doubt whatsoever and I'm out of here without a license, I _will_ just start beating up some examiners." Most of all, however, that smile and expression were ones of gratitude, and Reimu proceeded to hunch forward so as to reach Gon and pat his head. "Alright?"

While Kurapika and Leorio stared blankly at a Reimu so gently speaking of violence, Gon simply uttered after giggling, "Got it!" Reimu stretched her arms afterwards, knowing that would be the end of that when it came to the conversation, and that she more than ever needed to ease the sore sensation of her muscles affected by the stress she had been accumulating. She faced Marisa, who approached to playfully hit her shoulder so as to show her approval, and Reimu allowed for that as she turned to the side, to finally observe the circumstances before her, far grimmer than her current mood.

In the end, the animosity from the applicants remained after Menchi hung up the call on her own, proclaiming that none would still pass the Hunter Exam for the year. However, after seeing a skilled applicant launched out of the building with a single swat of Buhara's hand, the other applicants were entirely silenced by the presence of the examiners, while the six watched, gauging the situation. Mostly, Menchi was exposing her talents to the applicants, using it as justification for their failure, but they remained there, waiting until she finished and someone else would interject, or for silence to come so that either of the group could attempt to turn the situation around.

Before Reimu was endeavoring to become that presence despite her initial protests, a loud sound had caught their attention and directed all applicants' gazes to the sky. That flying apparatus, from which a voice had boomed with a suggestion akin to precisely what all were thinking, signalled the end of all doubt in that regard, and Reimu and Marisa were once again made to expect more out of the Hunter Exam, now with others to arrange for a different mindset on the event.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The Human Village, facing the dread of night in the fantasy land that was Gensokyo, beyond the passed endeavor of the other dimension. The time warranted faint lights of the yet open shops expecting more than humane visitors, but the majority of residents resumed their night life to their own homes and the streets were comparatively quiet than in the daytime as a result. Though, it was also that calm presence that further allowed Miko Toyosatomimi to pick up on stray conversations from a considerable distance, talks by rugged men stuck in bars uncaring of the fears of the night, reckless as they were with the current incident.

No matter her own thoughts on the indulgences, Miko found it best to inspect the night of the village and the rumors spreading then than in the daytime, devoid of the suspicious activity that would even spur the rumors at all. The extermination of youkai was nothing so eerie in the eyes of villagers: if anything, Miko noted, it would not even be known if not for deliberate word of mouth, as the corpse would not remain to rot the same way a human's would. The component that the villagers would be wary of was in fact nothing more than the unknown power triggering the exterminations, and the secretive nature of the group behind the act. Even if one were to spread rumors that they sided with human justice, the conclusion would never solidify under the pretense of a group that could not even assume itself openly. Those who joined, as such, did not do so from the hearsay, and Miko knew that plainly.

There was someone in her dojo, most likely. Someone who knew enough to manipulate the hearts of her followers, disappointingly enough, and they were in charge of their recruitment. The reason was simple enough: those training for hermithood were simultaneously those most infatuated with individual power. An offer for power from another faction more readily capable of handing it would easily sway those under Miko for their own ends. However, the normal villager would want no part in conflict, and power that could enable it was nothing more than worrisome for the state of the village. If the youkai were angered enough by the exterminations, could they not retaliate just as fiercely? Youkai were feared, but also familiar to Gensokyo, and it was for that reason as well that they could be welcomed to their stores at night to interact with the gossiping villagers in the bar that Miko could hear, even if they would deign to disguise themselves faintly of the human ilk.

Youkai were already too ingrained in the daily lives of the villagers for the thought of their full disappearance to be tempted: only a minority would be so bold as to rattle magical forces beyond human comprehension. And it was due to that alone that Miko knew there was little adhesion to the seemingly revolutionary movement against the youkai, reserved only for those who already wanted to surpass the forces above to begin with. It was a foreign invention, a concept that would not belong in Gensokyo if not for a newcomer's will, and said newcomer would trifle with Miko's own goals without regard for the unlikelihood of their ends. Were they self-aware, or plotting yet another inconvenience to the society of Gensokyo? Eirin's words occurred to Miko, who couldn't help but think, _I suppose the answer was obvious from the start: regardless of the intent, it needs to be resolved._

A sound softly scratched the depths of her ears, covered by muffs that were not entirely effective, but enough that the multiple sounds would not deafen her. It was the sound of a conversation not from some bar, but a more modest establishment that Miko had only recently been directed her attention to by a villager generous enough to dispense knowledge on a few of the going-ons of the night. The rumor resounded louder and louder as she walked, reaching far to the other end of the Human Village where a small rental shop stood inconspicuously in the darkness, sign barely legible with the light.

Miko did not remember the book store being open at such hours on previous visits to the village. Though she could not claim to know every building, Miko had always sought to have a detailed understanding of the layout of the village, and its architecture and advancements to the maintenance of homes was a lecture for another day, truthfully. Regardless, diligent study on the village had Miko at least be aware of the existence of most shops and businesses, and 'Suzunaan' was apparently one now to open at night. Well, it did exude some kind of supernatural aura; not the Nen of rumors, Miko noted. Energy belonging to youkai could be felt from the establishment faintly even within walking distance of the building, and it was lit to reveal a lightly open cloth, signalling some to enter. Why would a rental book store be busy enough to warrant gossiping at such hours? It was a case of its own.

Certainly out-of-place for the shabby shop, Miko nonetheless entered with a confident stride eyeing all around her, if only to note the origin of the presences she could feel rather than the position of those speaking to the proprietor, ominous in her intonation. The murmuring ceased when Miko allowed herself inside, and she only deigned to lock eyes with the group of villagers when she started to assume the only youkai in the shop were those sealed in books. _An accursed store, truly,_ Miko remarked in her mind scrutinizing the figure behind a small table perhaps supposed to serve as a counter. Dishevelled chairs surrounded the counter, and middle aged women were sitting concerned as they peered into the hermit saint's gaze.

"Why, do excuse the sudden intrusion," Miko said in an effortless attempt to break the silence. Upon bowing in politeness unwarranted for the modest individuals before her who trembled knowing their place from the sight, Miko flashed them an apologetic, albeit firm smile. "Whether or not you know of me, I shall do the honors of an introduction: I am Miko Toyosatomimi, a hermit dwelling in a dojo near the Great Mausoleum of the Hall of Dreams. The recent surge of Nen, as it is called, has garnered my attention and spurred an investigation of the rumored power, and the group wielding it. I presume you know of the rumors...?"

Realizing the burden of a response had been passed to them, the oldest of the group of women grimaced under the awkward pressure of Miko's winning figure. By the corner, one interjected, "Well, we know the very basics, but why would that bring one such as yourself here, if I might ask?" The respect was natural, originated from the regal presence of Miko who knew their displeasure to be from the difference in class inherent of their upbringing; one that would have the modest folk need to consider the best ways to address her. Most in Gensokyo, the strongest in particular would react similarly from a disdain for politeness, but Miko's senses knew there were different motivations in the older women.

Out of the group, there was only one whose integral posture betrayed the complexity of thought that assailed the majority: the girl behind the counter, young and doe-eyed as she stared in pure awe. Miko sent that innocent girl a glance, if only due to the amusing display, and responded, "Would that not naturally be for the very same reason you sit here now? Any and all hearsay is a source for research. I happened upon this store because I overheard the conversation and wish to hear more." Their uncertain gazes coupled with their lack of movement even in their facial expressions conveyed their future silence, perhaps because they had no fitting words to describe the inclusion of a well-known figure in their humble midst. Sympathizing with the social plight, Miko offered one of her brightest smiles, unbeknownst to its backfiring nature in the situation as she directed her gaze to the girl behind the table. "Now, would you pass me a chair, if you mind? I'd be nothing if not honored to hear from you as an equal, so towering over you like this doesn't quite _sit_ well with me, understandably enough."

The ingenious wordplay warranted a faint chuckle from its origin, and the lighthearted mood was met with momentary silence, most of the group averting their eyes. The topic was grim enough that Miko's attempts to smoothen her presence in the shop were being reacted to in such a manner; it was only understandable, she noted, that they would frown so uncertain of what to say to the hermit. The one being addressed, the girl who had only now showed herself frowning as she processed the words, perked up when standing as she answered, "O-oh, of course! You might as well take this seat, if anything!"

"Certainly not," Miko dismissively retorted with an elegant wave of her hand. "How equal would I be before the other guests if I were to take the center stage? This makeshift talk by the well is of your establishment's accord, isn't it?"

"Well," the girl uttered awkwardly as she looked aside with a wry smile, "I'd just figured it fit better that way... All things considered..." Her words dragged the quieter they would become, perhaps as she continued to think of the logic behind her justification, irrelevant enough for Miko to extrapolate only the basic premise: considering her tense features and lack of eye contact, she was likely flustered, blinded by Miko's radiant presence.

"They do say customer is god, but I am no customer now, the same as the ladies before me," Miko said with a calmer voice, tilting in the direction of the girl's returning gaze as if trying to peer into it, feeble though the attempt was. She gestured slowly for the shopkeeper, seeing her blink from the specific attention. "In this case, you, as the proprietor are more a god than we are. The god of the well, so to say."

"I'll take that as a compliment, I suppose," the girl said with a nod, as if concluding that fact for her own sake. She glanced towards the door behind her, leading likely to the back of the shop, connected to what would be her true residence. "Uh, I'll just get the chair." Despite the declaration, she lingered after sending another look towards Miko, who stepped back knowing the side of a bookshelf would accommodate her back, and leaned against it.

"And I'll be waiting," Miko said, "at the edge of my anticipated seat." Miko winked then, hoping it would finally make that spontaneous smile disappear so the poor girl could minimally relax in her own environment. As clear as it was that Miko had such an effect on people, it had yet to show results.

"Right..." the girl vacantly responded if only to acknowledge she had heard Miko before disappearing beyond the back of the store, leaving Miko alone with the other villagers. She cordially smiled as she wondered what kind of dreary rumor would weigh their hearts to the point they could not even deign to seem as polite now, but she could not further explore the matter to her leisure when three of them had stood from their seats, turning their backs to the desk of the shopkeeper with downcast gazes.

"We shouldn't be so late into the night," one of them uttered in a hushed tone, "We could worry our children."

"You ventured here without warning your relatives?" Miko interjected despite the fact she had not been necessarily talking to her, intending only to take information from the leaving ladies, regardless of their reasons for doing so. Her initial statement had been a lie, evidently, and Miko sought for the truth. The first middle-aged woman, her back more hunched than the three around her did not meet Miko's sideways gaze, and walked away in a pace akin to a dash.

"We just..." The second, however, had flinched when the question arrived, and sent a glance serving to gauge Miko's expression. She had paused to think, seeing in Miko nothing but a fitting frown of concern, never tarnishing her composure, only to say, "Would be worrying them anyway, considering the rumors."

"Surely you would understand," the other added, positioned behind the second deliberately.

"As for me..." From the opposite corner, an older lady, the first one to answer to Miko, stood plainly from her seat. "I reminded myself of business I had to tend to in the house, so I'll have to excuse myself today."

"M-me as well!" Just like that, all of the people in the store were standing and walking away from their seats, most passing by Miko without even a word, taking advantage of the situation. She blinked vacantly when she noted the situation, odd by nature.

"So soon after my arrival? If I were so presumptuous, I'd even start to assume my presence intimidated you for whatever reason," Miko said in return with added insolence to see if any would take the bait, but she instead heard from them in return only denial of the matter that was enough to warrant their departure from the store. Knowing they were hiding something, Miko allowed them to go, if only because there would always be one left.

Sat almost in front of the desk, turning her chair around with an abnormally calm movement that showed no distress was one of the youngest-seeming women in that strange gathering. She stood, only to dust her clothes off: for the season, she wore an appropriate amount of layers, but within the fabric stood out the green color most of all, obstructed minimally by the long scarf. Miko watched her place strands of long, brown hair behind her right ear, and when she met her gaze, there was surprisingly little she could read from the vacant frown. "I suppose you also remembered something important to attend to in the dread of the night?"

The woman closed her eyes for a second, stopping in her recently-begun tracks. "Why, these are trying times," she said with a softened voice, "Not many of us have the stomach to be interrogated while fearing for our lives." Unlike the others, despite the attempt to keep the minimum necessary polite speech, the woman's tone was surprisingly nonchalant, as if part of her nature.

Seeing her shrug, Miko's eyes narrowed, leading her to ask, "And would that include you, I wonder?"

"Why need me when the god of the well is right there before you?" The woman pointed faintly to the back of the store and, as if in a surge of twisted confidence over Miko, allowed herself to smirk. "No offence, Ms. Hermit Saint, but you might want to get yourself a better eye to match those ears." Affording Miko no time to process the statement and blink in surprise, the woman started to walk away without any regard for parting words. Though that would be enough to warrant some form of a retort from Miko, she grimaced under the realization that there was a clear meaning behind her words; one that implied a secret Miko was somehow unaware of.

Miko moved aside, away from the bookshelf to step after the woman. "Wait," Miko said, her voice the loudest it had been since her arrival at the store. The added urgency was seemingly effective, since the woman stopped again. "Who, exactly, are you?"

Slowly, the woman looked behind her, her wry expression intact. "A simple regular," was her brief response before passing through the exit and walking for the right, her presence felt only through sound. Miko took a step forward, considering whether to pursue the strange woman or not.

However, enclosing footsteps from behind drew Miko's attention to another person worth speaking to: the girl from the store returning empty-handed, a bitter smile on her features as she brashly filed in. "I'm really sorry, but it looks like I don't have any more **—** " The moment she noticed the row of empty seats, however, her eyes widened in pure surprise before she relentlessly met Miko's gaze. "Where did everyone go?"

"They were apparently too worried for their own homes to stay any longer," Miko briefly explained, her tone wry and playful as she walked for a seat just opposite of the girl's, and appropriated it for herself. "I spent a lonely few moments since, thinking of the talk by the well I just missed by the fewest minutes. Has Nen been such a source of concern for the Human Village?"

The question marked instead Miko's attempt to get through to the younger mind upon her, honest and earnest from appearance alone; an easier target for an interrogation. She finally frowned, as if apologetic before shaking her head. "Not really," she responded, laying eyes on the empty chairs before taking her original seat as well. "Well **—** This is somewhat hard to explain, but I could say yes as much as I could say no here."

"Oh?"

"The truth is that this wasn't really a gathering for gossip," the girl confessed, "Sorry for disappointing you. There's a friend of mine who could use a more inconspicuous place to talk with the other villagers, so she ended up picking the store..." She placed bother forearms over the desk, right hand over the left, and cast her eyes in that direction for a few seconds. Either she was attempting to keep composure, a far cry from her previous attitude, or she was only pondering over her next sentence, but Miko noted that for reference as the girl locked eyes with her now. "They actually wanted to avoid catching the eye of that Nen-using group, you see. They're on edge about the rumors."

"So it was a private gathering," Miko concluded, even if she had no explicit reference to such. The assumption was intuitive, and with the passing realization of its implications on the events so far, Miko's eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "Why didn't you simply say so?"

The girl nervously chuckled. "We didn't really find the timing for it when you entered..."

"Regardless, I can not ask about this gathering itself, but I would like to know about the new rumors. I thought there would be little reason for normal villagers to be nervous about Nen, considering they wouldn't be a target," Miko lied, and watched the girl's expression soften from released tension, as if the conversation were oddly in her favor.

It was suspicious, truthfully, but not yet incriminating, so Miko only frowned thinly in wait of the girl's input. Intending to seem more intimidating to add to the grim nature of her words, the girl grimaced, the right hand over her left now grabbing it as an emotional response. "That would have normally been the case, but, just a month ago, the extermination on youkai stopped, and people started disappearing, instead."

Immediately, Miko's eyebrows arched with clear doubt implied in the movement, but Miko herself remained frowning the same as before. The weight of what could be the new lead from the girl spoke for itself, so Miko asked firmly, "They did?"

"Actually, it's just one person," Kosuzu clarified in a quicker manner, contrary to the slow and calm tone she had been trying to assume, "but there are a few families fearing the same thing because it was the work of Nen-users."

"How would you know that, conversely?"

"Well..." The girl paused, taking a deep breath to calm down. What exactly had been causing that amount of stress on the shopkeeper was yet to be conclusively thought of, but it added to the increasing feeling that the girl in front of Miko was not simply sharing a rumor. Slowly, her eyes now lightly unfocused despite supposedly being set on Miko, the girl spoke: "The friend I told you about saw it happen before her eyes: she saw Mr. Sakichi being taken away by people with a white aura shrouding them. Though, apparently, they weren't quite people as far as she could tell. The people she told this to started getting scared the group could go after them if they investigated the rumors, so they decided to gather like this to get more details. Things only get more serious for everyone involved considering Mr. Sakichi had been acting strange lately, and other villagers have the same symptoms."

"The same symptoms? This Sakichi or so you call him was afflicted by something, then?"

"I heard this from his mother and a friend of the family who stopped by a few weeks ago," Kosuzu said, her voice quieter in light of the sensitive topic, "but Mr. Sakichi had been almost as if dormant most of the time. He would be asleep for days, and then wake up randomly. Nobody could awake him no matter what they would try, so he was almost thought of as sick back then. Now that he's been taken away, there are people theorizing this could even be the work of a youkai possessing them, and that's how the group of Nen-users has been formed. It's all very chilling, isn't it?"

Understanding the girl was fishing for a reaction, Miko's eyes narrowed, and she took a moment to ponder. The girl, meanwhile, frowned now as if uncertain, but Miko played along: "It definitely is sinister," she remarked, placing only the tips of her fingers onto the pink fabric that covered her upper chest, "but this is a very crucial piece of information for me. You say your friend saw this Sakichi be taken away by the Nen-users, who are even said to be youkai?"

"... According to her," the girl explained warily after snapping to attention as if distracted, "she passed by Mr. Sakichi himself when walking back from the well at night, but when she turned around, he was no longer there." She paused then, her grip on her left hand stronger, but she was staring at Miko intently, seeking to convey nothing more than assertiveness. "Concerned, she ran around the corner of the path, and stopped to hide because she immediately noticed two figured glowing white. She only saw their backs, but she was certain the one being carried in the middle of the two was none other than Mr. Sakichi, who was unconscious. Unfortunately, before she could think of doing something about this, they left the area at blinding speeds, and even though she saw their trail somewhat, she couldn't chase them very far. She went to tell me what happened straight away after what she saw, but I really only believed her after his disappearance became news; and that leads to now."

Miko waited for a few seconds, thinking she could have been recalling anything else in the story worth mentioning, but the girl's awkward frown belied the feeling of needless silence, so Miko broke the ice: "I see; so he was already out of his house when he was taken, but his disappearance was only recently announced as certainty?" she asked, knowing the content was specific enough to catch the girl off-guard. However, noting her unblinking eyes directed aside deliberately, her head accompanying slightly with a tilt, Miko was instead met with no hesitation.

"His parents didn't find it weird back then because he'd always been leaving at night and not coming back for a while. This time around, you could say that was their downfall."

That had marked the conclusion of the girl's explanation, and Miko thanked her profusely before excusing herself, having not even the thought to bother helping the store owner with the spread out chairs. Rather, as she returned from Suzunaan, Miko's mind wandered in regards to the new information, and the person who relayed it. _That storekeeper's words were rehearsed; that much is clear,_ Miko thought, _Though some truth was there to make sure her performance wouldn't be too obvious that even normal villagers would notice. I'd have assumed she was being forced, but from that conviction in her demeanor, it would seem as though this is voluntary. Voluntary, yes, but who knows if the girl is truly aware of the full extent of the plan she is involved in? Besides, according to her, she was gathering those villagers 'with a friend'..._ Finally, Miko smirked, as a clear figure occurred to her in guessing the central link to the girl's lies. However, she lightly shrugged in face of the discovery.

 _I can pursue that conspiracy when I feel it matters. I've gathered enough from her to know what to do then,_ Miko thought, _For now, I want to get to the bottom of the disappearance, and I plan on basing myself from villagers willing to tell me the truth as they know of it. Especially that sleeping condition the storekeeper talked to me about... After all, it has no ties to youkai._

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

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Finished it and edited it, oh yeah! Though, the ending of this chapter will still be by the time Menchi hangs up on Beans, which I imagine must be strange for you. There's a reason for this, really: the rest of the second phase just isn't that interesting, so there's nothing of note for me to write out of it but a summary of what happened. If anything, this was a reccurring issue in writing the chapter. The thing is, I can't always have original content when the exam is happening, but I'm not about to regurgitate everything that happened to you if it's the exact same as canon and if Reimu and Marisa have nothing of worth to contribute to the scene. I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to hear Todo getting more pissed, or Menchi explaining that the theme of the exam is cooking. I mean, it's just not that interesting.

Which is why there's a lot of narration skipping through events this time. This chapter was originally going to start exactly where Chapter 10 left off, but as I thought it over, I found that said introduction would be too boring and beat around the bush the fact that Reimu and Marisa are gonna be going through the second phase. Another thing is that there isn't much room to put scenes I'd want to put in the second phase of the exam because there's the pressure of having to cook fast and pass, so it can't last the hours the last phase did. In that aspect, the first phase, while having nothing happen, at least gave me room to play around with the characters and have them talk with each other. Meanwhile, everybody's so damn busy, they can't actually talk much, and if you notice, even in the manga, this phase didn't have as much meaning to the characters. It just showed them being losers at figuring sushi out, hahaha.

What sucks is that said lack of meaning will naturally translate to this story as well, and while I did try, Reimu and Marisa sucking at cooking isn't very interesting. Besides, some things had to come back to canon just like Killua's introduction on Chapter 9, and I'm not sure if that upsets you or not, but I kind of had no choice. Still, in my first drafts, the situations weren't actually that interesting, with Reimu and Marisa just sort of coming and going while abusing their powers in ways that didn't really fit them so it all suffered a lot of changes for there to be a more in-character plan of action to carry some pigs. And yeah, Reimu and Marisa aren't Hunter x Hunter-tier physically strong, oh noes! Why are all characters in Hunter x Hunter so strong, though? Reimu's shown being pretty ordinary if not more or less above average in Touhou, so I'm following that.

I considered making a full-blown Menchi vs Reimu moment, but scrapped the idea very easily because 1) Buhara's around and he'd stop Menchi 2) the applicants are around and they'd stop the fight because they couldn't care less about Reimu and her Nen business 3) I don't know the full extent of Menchi's fighting abilities, and it'd be kind of strange portraying it against Reimu, and it would be even stranger having Reimu just win against an examiner before Netero arrives 4) there'd be literally no meaning to the exchange. So yeah, while I did try coming up with more exciting stuff to make the chapter more interesting, it just wouldn't fit into the story in logical terms, so it ended up like this. Still, a lot of plot seeds were planted in this chapter, and that's pretty good on my end for a low point in the story. Besides, it's nice thinking up dialogue for the six main characters. Oh, and Hisoka. Hisoka's a ton of fun; I used to think writing him is just awkward, but now I don't at all. Since that talk he had with Marisa on the last chapter, I think Hisoka's awesome to write lol

As always, I did a whole bunch of research on the phase, and I read the same manga chapters so many times I can't count them. Speaking of, a lot of canon dialogue is taken directly from the original Japanese one, so I'm not taking from the translation as much as I'm translating the thing myself. I'd like to see my take as more or less a localization, since Reimu and Marisa are constantly shooting out English idioms; in my perspective, that was just a translation of whatever they were actually saying in Japanese ^^' But by the way, Gon's been referring to Reimu and Marisa as Ms. for a while now, huh? This conscious decision stems from the fact that he usually does that to all adults that aren't evil or that he doesn't think as evil yet... With the exception of Leorio because they're supposed to be closer. However, considering he doesn't know Reimu and Marisa as much, I figured he'd be treating them like he does the other adults, even if the contrast between him and everybody else just saying their first names is a bit strange. Well, either way, this chapter took a lot from the manga, and not as much from the 2011 anime, which you can tell because of the sushi part of the phase. Now, I could have certainly shortened the second phase by mimicking the one in the 2011 anime the same way I made the location of the second phase be the same as the anime rather than the manga for convenience, but I chose otherwise for a very clear reason.

Because the anime's phase is pretty stupid, as far as I can tell...? In the manga, Buhara requests a pig roasted whole on purpose so that the focus can be on catching the pig to begin with, which is why, when everybody's done, they bring the pigs to him roasted whole. LIKE HE ASKED. Then, Menchi requests sushi knowing barely anyone is familiar with it on purpose so they'd have to rely on their observational skills to guess what it's like. However, Hanzo reveals what kind of dish it is and ruins the exam along with Menchi's mood, making her judge the dishes just by their execution instead of the applicants' actual observational skills, and she fails them all because her standards are too high for her to ever be satisfied by anyone's cooking. This is why Netero's forced to step in and tell her off for not following the guidelines she set for the exam. However, the 2011 anime cuts the sushi part and tries to make due with just catching the pigs, which is okay; the only meaningful part in the second phase is really the one where Gon's catching the pig and comparing that thrill with the one he felt when facing Hisoka. What sucks though is the execution of this cut: Buhara requests any sort of pig dish for both he and Menchi to try out, and the applicants just... Give them pigs roasted whole...? And then somehow Menchi is in the wrong for pointing out that they have no originality or willingness to do things? How the hell is Menchi wrong here? Why does Netero even need to come when she's right about failing everybody? This makes no sense!

With that in mind, I went off of the manga, though the 1999 anime did have some nice parts, like when Hisoka saw that his dish was the same as Killua's and Killua's dish was failed by Menchi, making him just give up, set his dish aside and go sit around at a river XD I didn't make this happen on the chapter because I feel like that wouldn't sit with the image projected by Menchi of a murderous Hisoka putting her on edge. I also figured Killua wouldn't give Menchi anything without being sure it's the right thing, so I made him just not make anything; I felt like that would be very fitting of him. The fact that Menchi was on edge, by the way, did affect how she treated Reimu (and Marisa) and Hanzo when she was confronted with them, and even before that moment. When it came to the transition between the moment Menchi says everybody's failed and the moment she's ranting to Beans, I also pretty much theorized Buhara was the one who made the call and passed it to Menchi after everybody rallied to complain... Though, this time around, that resulted in ignoring Reimu's badassery.

I'd talk about writing Menchi and Buhara, but I didn't have to spend much time writing them, so I don't have much to say, unfortunately. If anything, Menchi's pretty fierce: she was gonna kill Todo if not for Buhara's interference, which says something about her temperament. Meanwhile, Buhara's the foil to Menchi's attitude, and I think that dynamic is captured perfectly with the second phase of the exam. The two do get along despite their differences in demeanour, and that's also neat. Also, I had a bunch of options for people that would interfere with Reimu's fight with Menchi, but I settled on Hanzo because he was the most likely, though I at first envisioned Hisoka throwing a card like 'oops my hand slipped' and stopping the battle. Then, when I started writing the scene, I realized Hisoka would never do something like that because the prospect of Reimu giving it her all to fight somebody Hisoka was already intent of killing would be awesome to him; no way he'd stop Reimu from fighting. Because of that, I imagined any of the main characters, but I just didn't see it happen with them with the exception of maybe Marisa, but even that was a little doubtful so I didn't have her get in Reimu's way. Still, it's kind of sad I had to call Hanzo the 'bald applicant'. Poor guy.

Also, Touhou side! I had no clue before writing this chapter about Sumireko's situation because Touhou 16.5 hadn't been out by then, so when I read that chapter of Rinnosuke's series I had a moment of gloom where I wondered how I could save Sumireko. Thankfully, though, Touhou 16.5 turned out to be Rinnosuke's idea, so I figured that if I basically got Rinnosuke in on it, things would work out while everyone was concerned with this story. What's gonna happen with the plots about Hell and Reimu dying, you ask? Hahaha... Anyway, it's not often I can write Rinnosuke but being able to fit him in gets me in a good mood: though, he's more the kind of character who's fun because you know exactly what he's thinking, and Rinnosuke's perception of stuff is its own flavor. There was also a mysterious figure there, but oh well...? There was also Miko and Kosuzu at the end, and the plot also thickens with another mysterious figure! To be honest, I'd always wanted a Forbidden Scrollery chapter with Miko or Futo with it, but alas, Forbidden Scrollery was fun regardless and my dreams will remain dreams. As always, Miko is great to write, and Kosuzu's awkwardness sort of heightens the Miko charisma.

Whatever the case, Reimu and Marisa made the Hunter x Hunter main characters know the existence of Nen early on and the Touhou plot is thickening! Who knows the effects this will have on the story? Well, hopefully you look forward to that!

 **Deleted dialogue:**

*deleted because I just never managed to fit it in ;_;*

Gon: "What kind of things can you both do with magic, by the way?"

Marisa: "Curtain fire."

Reimu: "Definitely curtain fire."

Gon: "Curtain fire...?"

Killua: "Does that even matter right now? At this rate, none of us are gonna pass the exam because Reimu and Marisa are too busy talking to us to show off the shape of the sushi we're supposed to make!"

Gon: "Sorry..."


	12. Chapter 11

**First Words:**

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 **somemadao - Someone could definitely make Reimu's predicament into crossover material, coupled with Kasen and other relevant characters like Marisa trying to figure out where she is at all, but I happen not to be familiar with the work you're referencing so I can't pitch in more details than that, hahaha. Speaking of, I definitely didn't see the arm reveal coming at all: I honestly thought Wild and Horned Hermit would end with Kasen not being close to finding her arm but solving some kind of bigger issue and leaving it at that, but, as always, ZUN works beyond my expectations. I'm glad for it, of course, since it makes me wonder what it'll do. Naturally, Reimu won't die, but we might know something about Kasen? And if Wild and Horned Hermit ends, maybe a new manga will show up with some new character, and that's always fun! Hunter x Hunter, on the other hand, is going sort of on the expected side, with the hiatuses and the way it's structuring the current arc; kind of sad how long it'll take to end. Also, thank you for pointing out the typo! I always appreciate people who do this because omg I swear I proofread it and read through it multiple times but I somehow am super bad at proofreading and this kind of stuff slips by me ;_; Regardless, good luck with your studies, and thank you very much for reviewing, as always!**

 **JYsven - Technically, Reimu and Marisa have been using spellcards since at least two chapters back with Reimu's Fantasy Seal, which I imagine is self-explanatory in answering the first question. I'll try to implement them in instances that'll hopefully be interesting! As for the second question, Reimu's powers are spiritual power, and not magic. I just sort of made it a running gag that Killua tries to rile them up by getting their powers or identities wrong, so he says Reimu's a witch and uses magic regardless of what Reimu tells him, and Reimu herself doesn't really mind so she doesn't make that big an effort to correct him. Anyway, thank you very much for reviewing!**

Since the last chapter, this story got 4 favorites and 11 followers, all of which I'm exceedingly grateful to! I keep taking three months or so to get a chapter out and that scares me, hahaha... I have inspiration so everything's going alright to the point I could probably keep writing the rest of the story to have a bigger backlog: in fact, I've been considering just taking time to write more of the story before starting uploading again, but I haven't decided yet, and will probably make that announcement on the first words of the chapter I'll upload at the time. For now, though, I'm hoping to catch up with my current backlog.

Whatever the case, enjoy!

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 **Chapter 11: Expectations Before and After the Tower**

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Though many had lost hope in their chances of passing the Hunter Exam when Menchi was brandishing her knives, speaking of the general prowess of any Hunter, it appeared the Selection Committee Buhara had called in their stead had acted for them, and the chairman was seen dropping down from an airship many meters from the ground. The applicant blown away by a single punch from Buhara had been struggling to stand when said chairman was so nonchalantly talking to Menchi, whose disposition transitioned wildly from her previously assertive stance. The sight had silenced all applicants, and their eyes had been set on the chairman rather than Menchi even as they lightly concluded that the exam was not quite over yet.

Then, for a few minutes, Reimu and Marisa were introduced to the airship's interior, only to arrive at a mountain seemingly split in half to execute a test so easy they could not contain their smirks: to take an egg from the nests of spider eagles. The rest of the applicants had been forced to jump down the gap where the eggs' nests lay, but Reimu and Marisa had the choice to simply fly for the eggs and leave victorious. They decided to depart for them at the same time as the other applicants, if only because they did not want to risk the air current destabilizing their flight. As such, they had become the last applicants to hand in their eggs, as they chose to take them only after the air current subsided.

Much to their surprise, the eggs' flavour was not as disgusting as its outward slimy appearance, and they enjoyed the small meal with the other applicants who had passed the exam with flying colours before they were guided back to the airship by a short green man Marisa could assuredly recognize. Reimu had glanced back as she walked at the time, finding that Buhara and Menchi were intent on entering the airship despite the fact that their phase had come to an end; they seemed to be in a good mood, so Reimu shrugged and paid them no further mind.

Now, all of the applicants were gathered before the chairman of the Hunter Exam Selection Committee by his own admission, and by his side was the green man Marisa was currently eyeing perhaps excessively in comparison to the chairman, who had already started to speak. "I am responsible for this year's Selection Commitee; Netero's my name," the old man stated, his posture a mix between conversational and casual, but upright enough to exude some amount of confidence. "I was actually supposed to appear on the last phase of the exam, but now that I'm here and looking at you all..." His eyes drifted from one corner of the crowd of applicants to the other, screening through all of their expressions in a speed so unrealistic most had assumed he barely saw them at all. Then, he smiled wholeheartedly, a far cry from his previous nonchalance. "I'm sure liking the tension coming from you, so I've decided to keep you company until you arrive at the site of Phase Three!" With that, he chuckled, while none of the applicants could exactly perceive why that was or why Netero seemed so carefree to begin with.

Before they could ponder further on his unreadable nature, however, the man beside Netero gestured towards a clock set on the wall behind him and explained, "We are expected to reach the site tomorrow at eight o'clock. Before then, you are free to use this break time however you desire, as we will give you an announcement when we arrive." The instructions were clear and left no room for argument, and considering that Netero was already intent on walking away, it was safe to assume he had finished his business with the applicants. However, Marisa, who had been staring at the green man for the duration of Netero's speech had abruptly turned his way, while Reimu only spared that a curious glance.

"Hey, Netero, was it?" Marisa headed for him at a swift pace and easily blocked his path, as he had been leaving the area slowly and calmly. In an equally relaxed fashion, he took in the sight of the injured applicant waving at him awkwardly with her left arm, which was not her dominant one by any means. "So, I don't know if your green secretary mentioned it to you or not, but I've been wanting to know if I could watch over the Hunter Exam even after failing, and he told me I needed to get your approval."

Marisa's words hung heavily in the air as Netero looked over Marisa in what she perceived to be his attempt at sizing her up. Then, his eyebrows rose in only mild curiosity, the most he could seemingly spare for Marisa after his observation. "You want to spectate the exam? You haven't even failed yet," he loosely said, as if only voicing precisely the first thing that occurred to his mind when he processed Marisa's request. "Just because one of your arms is broken, it doesn't mean you won't pass the exam."

"Well, yeah, but I wanna know if I can just in case I don't—"

"If you wanna watch the whole exam, just pass it on your own," Netero asserted in order to interrupt Marisa, though the only difference in tone from before was his lack of curiosity, which was replaced with simple neutrality. "That's as much as it's demanded out of anybody who decides to take the exam, and you're not any different. In other words, you're not allowed to get even a glimpse of the rest of the exam if you fail; not on my watch!" Netero's eyes narrowed ominously when locking onto Marisa's, as Marisa practically shrunk under the intense gaze. She smiled apprehensively and chuckled faintly, but it had no effect on Netero, whose eyes narrowed even further for another moment while he hummed accusingly; feeling needlessly judged, Marisa could no longer sustain the smile. However, it was when Marisa frowned that Netero had dropped that demeanour entirely in such a swift fashion that Marisa could not help but question how serious Netero had been in the gesture, or if he had only meant to unsettle her. He proceeded to pass by Marisa with a small smile as he stretched out his arm for a careless wave. "But, well, if it makes you feel any better, I'll be rooting for you."

Marisa watched him leave the room, hearing only the sound of the old man's sandals clanking with each step. _Damn,_ Marisa thought while blinking in some awe. _He's not the chairman for nothing. I've just been had._ When Netero was no longer visible from afar, Marisa grimaced before looking down at the cast surrounding her broken arm. _It'd be great if I could be sure I'd pass, but then again..._ Marisa sighed and shook her head so as to dismiss the negative train of thought, or at least to focus on it less than more relevant matters. _Even if I pass at all, it'll be Reimu's doing. Kind of a drag, if you ask me..._ She managed a wry smile, and turned to the side in search of Reimu.

Reimu's original position was empty, and there were no signs of Leorio and Kurapika who had been nearby. Figuring they had all gone to rest (or else Reimu would tell her what she would busy herself with just in case), Marisa walked away from the room out of an obligation to find a better place to use her door to Eientei, dragging meaningless thought with her and pretending the heavier topics were in no way glued to her mind in the first place.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

I've gotta tell her, _she thought,_ I've gotta tell her before it's too late...!

 _Although she truthfully was intent on carrying out that will and reaching the shrine grounds, her running speed only seemed to deteriorate with the passing seconds. Every time her right foot connected to the ground, her ankle stung in pain, but she had found in her dreadful situation that she had no choice but to run, and keep running. She was heavily panting by now, and her surroundings were a vague blur to her excepting only when she would look behind her._

 _Behind her, only perhaps a meter from her was him, a man she had previously considered harmless. His smile was crooked, his gaze was sharp and locked onto her injured form, and his tied hair swayed wildly with the fast speeds he was running, which outclassed hers greatly. His hands were joining together in a dangerous gesture that signalled an incoming attack, but she did not have the reaction time necessary to dodge by moving to the side, much to her dismay. She turned around to face him, and attempted to reach out for her tool with her right hand._

 _She remembered that it was no longer available to her, as her arm hung limp and dark, bent and twisted from her shoulder, pain coursing through it with every second. It twitched clumsily so as to begin its movement, causing rising spikes in her suffering. By the time she had decided to use her left hand, he was already precisely in front of her, and it took him practically a second to raise his fist and aim it towards her. She had no choice, she noted; the blow was far too fast to be dodged._

 _Using her left arm as a sacrifice, she raised it to his fist and suppressed the urge to flinch, wince or scream in pain, instead taking a step back from the sheer force of the man's attack. With her own two eyes, widened from the shock, she witnessed the originally healthy arm curve helplessly before the superhuman strength derived from the rumored power, taking a shape more akin to the end of a cane than to an arm. Her other arm was comparatively healthier, as it at least only appeared lightly out of place. Her left arm, on the other hand, showed traces of the whiteness of one of the bones of her forearm, not to mention the visible blood leaking slowly through the open injury._

 _It was then she had lost all hope. Without any discernible means to combat the imminent threat, and no way to escape, the despair locked her into place, allowing her to watch her attacker's fist piercing through her stomach, and tearing a hole into—_

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

In the very beginning of dawn, the vacant rooms of the airship were occupied with Hunter applicants who slept on the floor in preparation for the morning that awaited them. As they were no more than forty, the areas were not especially cramped, and not a sound would originate from the room beyond normal breathing and slight snoring. The mood was peaceful, befitting of a break, and Reimu lay soundlessly on the ground next to Marisa, a glaring exception.

Her eyes had been forced open by sheer shock, and the gasp she had let out was equally as audible. For a moment, she breathed in and out at a moderately fast rate, as she looked through the ceiling of the vacant room, which was not at all noteworthy. The lamp's lighting had been turned off, but it was easy to see the ceiling was white, and that it was part of her reality, unlike the nightmare that had just jolted her awake. _Great; now I gotta fall asleep all over again._ Marisa slowly ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "What a pain in the ass..."

"Did you have a nightmare or something?" Immediately, Marisa looked to the her right: Reimu was still asleep, and so were Leorio and Kurapika, who lay nearby with a thin blanket covering them. However, to her surprise, Killua was casually sitting next to the three, and Gon was not in sight. His eyes were fixated on Marisa from slight curiosity, but the thin frown on his face indicated he was not especially invested. "Kind of lame seeing you get so scared for nothing."

"And what're you doing awake at this hour?" Marisa questioned in a quiet, weary voice, dripping only with the slightest trace of sour poison caused only by her mood. "Bedtime's long but passed for you."

Killua huffed, directing his gaze aside, tempting a sly smile which turned somewhat bitter. "Not for me. I was raised to sleep as little as possible," he said, though even he seemed to sound strangely distant as he spoke, as if he was not keeping track of his own words. "So even if I decide to stay up all night playing video games, I don't get scolded at all. That's the kind of environment I'm used to." He rested his head over his arms bent behind him, leaning on the wall. He stretched his legs then, glancing only once to keep track of whether Marisa was still awake or not.

"Huh..." Marisa took a few seconds to ponder on the new information, and grimaced in the lack of coherence in her mind. "Can't tell if you're lucky for being able to do something non-stop or unlucky 'cause you can't sleep in anymore now that you're so used to staying awake," Marisa vacantly remarked. "Now that's a dilemma if I've ever heard of one. Way to mess around with my head when I'm still sleepy." She lightly scratched her head, only vaguely noting the hard wall she was leaning on as uncomfortable, but not acting up it due to the fact that there were no beds available.

"I can still sleep in, you know?" Killua retorted while shooting Marisa a lacking glare, short-lived enough that Marisa herself had not noticed it. He glanced aside again, absent-mindedly so towards what Marisa only now could see was the closed exit of the room onto the hallway. "I just don't feel like doing it right now, and I don't need to, anyway, so I'm staying awake." The observation led Marisa to consider the small windows to the side as she processed the strangely neutral, if not slightly wistful tone in Killua's voice. The sky was still dark, displaying nothing but stars, and Marisa would likely have to stand from her position to see the slightest traces of the sun's shine from below.

However, she blinked, some of her drowsiness dispersing, and looked back at Killua with a quirked eyebrow. He was not looking at her now, but, regardless, she asked, "Something wrong?"

"Not really," Killua promptly responded while still facing the exit, only to shrug. "Just sort of bored."

"Why don't you sleep, then? No better time than right now for it," Marisa offered, glancing briefly towards the window, "bein' night and all."

"Already slept," Killua said, "so I'm not feeling like it."

"You're in a tough spot, then," Marisa remarked, offering a wry smile after eyeing the apathy in his expression. The feeling familiar to Marisa, she looked around the room, and found predictably nothing to entertain Killua with, much less herself. Leorio snored to the side, and while some applicants twitched as though about to awaken, they were clearly meaning to stay put. She looked towards her bag, simultaneously noting she was awake enough to feel the awkwardness of Killua's silence. _Guess it's not the time for cards. Or is it?_ "What time is it, anyway?"

Marisa leaned on the wall and shifted her gaze casually to Killua, whose eyes were not open at that point, but it was clear he was not asleep as he kicked one of his legs in the air. "I don't know," Killua responded quickly, opening one of the eyes ever so slightly to glance at the window, "I'd say five in the morning, though."

 _Five in the morning, huh..._ Marisa thought, reminding herself of the time she had rested along with Reimu. After she had headed for Eientei, Reimu was already asleep, sprawled on the floor without much care for other presences. Though Kurapika had been awake, Marisa joined Reimu, though she leaned on the wall nearby, instead: unable to sleep through the first phase, and having still to do the second, the fatigue was undeniable to the point Marisa had fallen asleep at approximately nine in the afternoon, resulting in a total of eight hours of sleep from Marisa's part. While slightly drowsy, Marisa nodded to herself in light of her current ability to be active at such hours. _Could've slept less, gotta admit._ "Where's Gon, by the way?"

"Isn't he asleep by now?" Killua uttered carelessly, and Marisa watched the lack of change in his laidback change with furrowed eyebrows.

"And you're not with him?" Marisa asked, hunching forward as if to better notice it if Killua were to show signs of hesitation in his previous answer.

However, Killua had instead opened his eyes swiftly, sending a glare Marisa's way. "Do I have to be with Gon every second of my life or something? He wanted to hang out with the old geezer, so I let him be," he voiced bitterly as he waved a hand around, his previous posture entirely gone. His other hand was touching the floor, and his crossed legs were laid there as well; his glare had just as quickly faded, as he looked aside as though too bored to prolong it.

Marisa, on the other hand, scratched her head and processed Killua's words picturing all old people she had met in the exam. "You mean the chairman?" Marisa asked as the first suggestion in her mind, and the lack of reaction from Killua seemingly confirmed it for her. "Why'd he wanna hang out with that guy?"

Killua shrugged. "Who knows? Gon's weird."

The short response had Marisa re-consider pressing on the topic, though Killua only seemed to be vacantly staring towards the exit again now, displaying boredom more than any other emotion. "That so...?" _Not like this is the best place to have a conversation, huh?_ Marisa yawned thinking of the matter, and smiled as though finally welcoming a new day. "Well, it's almost morning and I slept a lot already, so I might as well just wake up. What are you gonna do now, Killua?"

"Nothing much," Killua said, "I already explored the whole ship with Gon."

"And here I was gonna ask ya to join me," Marisa retorted with a quiet voice strained in Marisa's genuine amusement, and her hand hovered slightly over her mouth predicting she would laugh. "You kids work fast." She huffed instead, pretending to be disappointed while imagining the fun the two must have had playing in the entirely new and strange environment, finding the scene refreshing in the midst of the adults on their guard.

"You're just too slow," Killua retorted with a smirk coupling narrowed eyes. He pointed her way for good measure, though Marisa was unaffected by the gesture.

"I wouldn't be if I weren't so sleepy," Marisa countered, only to direct a thumb to her chest area, her smile widening. "Where I come from, I'm usually the first person to stick my nose right into what's interesting."

"So even in your homeland, you're a busybody."

"The biggest," Marisa declared with a grin of pride, and winked contrastingly to Killua's blank gaze.

"That wasn't a compliment, you know?"

"No point being yourself if you don't own it." Marisa pressed her hand towards the ground so as to support her weight in standing from her position against the wall, glancing at Killua briefly as she did so just to note him clicking his tongue and grimacing with lacking intensity. Marisa brushed Reimu's skirt as she did stood, but Reimu showed no reaction, leaving Marisa to think, _Must've been tiring when you were the one who did the most stuff out of us two._ Marisa then grabbed her bag along with the broom directly over it, and walked away, stopping only near the exit to turn to Killua with a renewed cheerful smile. "Anyway, it's no airship exploration, but how about we head over to the top of this thing and check out the sunrise? Better than being cooped up in here."

"Why don't you go by yourself?" Killua plainly asked, seemingly genuine in the inquiry.

As such, Marisa took a few seconds to ponder, and smirked as she reached for one of her pockets. When she found her weapon, she brandished it to Killua, whose head immediately tilted up, eyes wide with clear interest in the object he could recognize from the second phase. "'Cause you're also bored outta your mind and I can show off my moves there," Marisa said while fiddling with the miniature furnace, which she pocketed in a timely fashion, after having thrown and successfully caught it mid-air. "So, you in or not?"

Killua hummed pensively, showing no amazement at her standoffish behavior, and, staring mostly towards the bag on Marisa's back, answered, "If you let me ride on that broom alone and show me those moves you're talking about, you've got yourself a deal. But it better be some really cool magic."

"You bet it's cool," Marisa asserted, "So what're you waitin' for?" Marisa glanced behind her, directing a finger to point at the broom attached to the bag unevenly before opening the door out. "The broom's not gonna fly itself."

Killua swiftly stood from his seated position, enough that Marisa had trouble keeping up with what she perceived as a jump, though it emitted no sound. He stepped towards her calmly then, smirking deviously. "Now we're talking," he said; Marisa took that as the certain sign she would leave the room with company. She walked out, and the two proceeded to the airship's top section without incident, chatting idly through the hallways devoid of human presence.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The Sun peeked from the edges of the trees on the ground, far from the height Marisa and Killua were currently at. It shone brightly already, and its surrounding sky was dyed a calm orange hue. For all intents and purposes, it was a normal sunrise, but from a different dimension, or so Marisa would find herself realizing every other minute she glanced through her surroundings.

Marisa's left hand left much to be desired with its unstable grip on her miniature furnace, but it did not affect the output of the Master Spark by any means, even despite the constant trembling. She stood by the very edge the roof could provide for her, surrounded by a metallic railing. She had aimed her attack towards the vast sky, and the gigantic laser seemed to almost pierce through the edges of the Sun. Its force warranted Marisa to step back, though she smiled confidently. Floating by Marisa's right was Killua, who sat on her broom staring at the attack with only mildly awed eyes, as he had seen the move before under a different context.

When the magical charge had finally ended and Marisa lowered her arm to pocket her weapon, Killua was whistling as a show of casual admiration, breaking through any potential silence. "As showy as I remember it. Think you fried any birds from a distance with that laser?" Marisa looked to the side, only to see Killua squint with a hand placed above his eyes as though to check the horizon.

"This thing could fry a mountain, let alone some birds," she claimed with eyes almost as bright as the rising sun, attempting to catch sight of his expression after her performance. "If they got in the way of a real Master Spark, they're pretty much ash!"

She chuckled afterwards, while Killua hummed as though passively acknowledging Marisa's words, and let the hand he had over his eyes hang when he shifted his gaze to Marisa. "That's one straightforward attack, for a witch," he remarked, his smile only faint in light of the situation, thinking more of the moment the laser had been shot than Marisa's current stance.

"Nothing wrong with a straightforward attack," Marisa retorted regardless of his lacking reaction, "They're quick, flashy and get the job done just right." She offered Killua a thumb's up, but he was only able to frown the more he considered Marisa's words.

He looked back to the sky for a moment, mostly from the burnt scent he could pick up from the horizon, but Marisa's aim had guaranteed minimal damage to the forest area below the airship, with only the tallest trees having a branch or two missing from their original shapes. Killua placed a hand under his chin, and asked Marisa with notable curiosity, "Still, isn't that Master Spark thing really easy to dodge? In the time you take to charge the furnace, anyone could up and kill you before you shoot, and as long as you're fast enough, you can move away from its blast range by just jumping to the side so it's not like you'd have an advantage even if you were flying while using it."

"That's why I add more projectiles when I'm fightin' someone," Marisa easily said, her arm simultaneously stretching outward as she intended to represent the scattered projectiles in her gesticulation. "So, then, when somebody's gotta dodge the laser, they can forget the stars and get hit by them or forget the laser while dodging the stars and get hit by that." Killua saw Marisa glance downwards, presumably towards the pocket she would keep the strange weapon utilized for the laser, but frowned then, bitterly so. "I'd show you the full package with the stars and everything, but it's not as easy aiming and shooting out the stars with a broken arm when the other one's holdin' onto the furnace while it charges."

Killua pondered on Marisa's response for a few seconds, raising his head and staring towards nothing as he pictured a real fight in his mind. "Having more stuff going on with the laser would make it trickier, sure, but it'd only take good reflexes and focus to dodge those two at the same time while moving towards you," he said just as absent-mindedly as he seemed, crossing his arms. "The moment your opponent would get close to you while you're busy shooting, it'd be game over. It just doesn't sound all that efficient in battle, as far as I can tell."

"Of course it isn't," Marisa stated quickly, "The move's not meant to be efficient in a real battle; it's supposed to be flashy. Curtain fire's all about showin' off, after all."

Killua's eyes widened somewhat listening to Marisa's response, and he looked in her direction while slowly blinking at first. "Huh? 'Curtain fire'?" Then, eyebrows creased, his frown deepened, noting the simple smile in Marisa's features. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's how we settle conflicts back home," Marisa said, "We take our magic and abilities, and we show them off in the form of rows and rows of projectiles; that's why it's 'curtain fire'. That's not all, though." _Isn't it just the spellcards Reimu was talking about before, though?_ Regardless, Killua's confused could not help but soften under the light of Marisa's honest gaze and smile not just of pride, but a hint of nostalgia beyond Killua's imagination in someone like Marisa, who seemed prone to smile mostly in a casual, if not even cynical fashion. Now, however, there was no tension in her stance, and she almost as if jumped in place in her excitement: "Curtain fire's only complete in a real duel if you go easy on the opponent: you gotta restrict yourself, and find ways to creatively show the full extent of your identity without going all-out to begin with. This is where spellcards come in: you abide by the rules, create the kind of curtain fire that most fits you and pit it against the opponent's. The one who's most beat up loses, but since it's all fun and games, you might as well consider it a battle where everyone wins. Then again, if you really care about spellcards, there's no two ways around it. The most beautiful one wins, and everyone can be there to appreciate it!"

Killua blinked, seemingly overwhelmed by the quick flow of foreign information thrown his way by an exceedingly content Marisa. It was perhaps the only time he had seen Marisa genuinely and absolutely invested and passionate about something she was speaking about, though the strange nature of the topic dulled the impact of that observation. "Okay, so..." Killua paused in order to organize his thoughts, only to continue speaking with a grimace: "Where you come from, you solve conflicts by having fake battles against each other? And that somehow involves shooting lots of stuff?"

"Yup!" Marisa nodded afterwards, grinning. "It's as fun to watch as it is to shoot, trust me."

"What kind of place is that? No matter how I see it, it sounds really made-up," Killua uttered, unable to contain his first thoughts, and seeing no need to. He glared Marisa's way in the midst of his own suspicion, while Marisa seemed to finally frown, even if weakly from confusion. "Besides, how is shooting a huge laser going easy on the opponent? You yourself said it could fry a mountain."

"I said a _real_ Master Spark can fry a mountain," Marisa asserted, "The one I use in spellcards is a weaker version. Wouldn't wanna destroy all of Gensokyo just from using Master Sparks." _Gensokyo?_ Killua thought, grimace unrelenting as he noted Marisa's silence; that she would assume that would be enough of an explanation to satisfy Killua. The passing seconds proved her notion wrong, presumably, and Marisa looked aside pensively, only to smile wryly. "If everybody in my homeland went all-out and fought, it'd be utter chaos, okay? That's why the rules are so important over there."

"Where even is the place you're talking about?" Killua asked almost the very second after Marisa had finished speaking, almost as though on impulse. "If it existed, there'd have to be people talking about it somewhere, but nobody's ever heard of 'Gensokyo' or whatever you call it." However, even as he spoke, Killua could understand that there were pertinent questions beyond the one he was asking, particularly in light of his current position: sat on a flying broom, which he never even knew existed, watching Marisa unleash a power he was entirely unaware of before now. More than even the location Marisa referenced, it occurred to Killua thinking of how there was never an uproar about the kinds of skills Marisa and Reimu, along with their unknown peers possessed, but Killua did not voice the fact, leaving that decision for after he gauged Marisa's expression and answer.

Marisa, conversely, took no time pondering on her response, saying plainly, with a smile only to ease Killua into the topic, "That's 'cause it's in another dimension, so it makes sense nobody's heard of it."

"... Was that a joke?"

"I'm as serious as can be. You remember the place with the doors? That place is also in a different dimension, and if it weren't for the doors there, I wouldn't have been able to come here." Killua's eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked over Marisa, as if in search for signs that she was lying, anything that would prove her statements wrong. "C'mon, Killua. If you're gonna be this much of a skeptic about it, I can always take you to Okina and have her give you proof. The backdoor's right behind me." Said backdoor briefly flashed with a purple color, synchronizing with Marisa's will, but it closed itself immediately afterwards due to Marisa's lacking desire to actually pass through. Naturally, Killua had picked up on that, and his gaze had shifted away from Marisa in that very moment.

When he faced Marisa again, seeing her eyebrows creased and her gaze sharp, belying a displeasure derived from disappointment, Killua found himself somehow tired despite having spent no energy from his position mid-air and sighed. "No, don't bother. Even if you did manage to show me a whole other dimension, I'd still be doubting you just so I wouldn't freak out outright," he said, "Besides, all things considered, that door place is another dimension, too. I might as well just not doubt you witches anymore."

Marisa smiled again, and her left hand, curled into a fist, rose unnaturally towards the sky, as though unfamiliar with the gesture in relation to her other arm. "That's the spirit," she brightly uttered, "It'd be pretty depressing if only Hisoka actually believed me, after all."

Before Killua could even process the entirety of the implications of another dimension, his eyes widened in shock, and the broom swayed back as if picking up on his emotions. He pointed to Marisa incredulously and scowled, in face of another unbelievable reality. "Wait, you told that stuff to Hisoka and he _believed_ you?"

"I didn't tell him about spellcards, but I did tell him I was from another world," Marisa said, grimacing likely due to reminiscing on Hisoka. "I couldn't just lie to him when my arm's broken; I'd stand no chance." She shrugged lightly, displaying none of the fear the sentence implied, as if she were only taking it as objective fact.

"You're lucky he didn't think you lied to begin with," Killua said, and Marisa smiled apprehensively in return. Killua looked down, seeing mostly the forest, with the railing by the corner of his eye. Marisa was slightly farther from it, but he was thinking of her regardless with a thin frown. _Another dimension? Talk about surreal._ "Still, I guess it'd explain some things about you, and that's without considering your powers."

"Oh, yeah?" Marisa uttered as if to incite an explanation, and Killua took the challenge, meeting her gaze quickly.

"Like the way you act like you're used to fighting," he said, "but don't feel intimidating at all or fear anyone no matter how strong they are. You don't have a drop of killing intent in you."

As if lightly flustered, Marisa briefly scratched her left cheek, smiling gently. "Heh, thanks."

"That's not a good thing in a place like this, you know? If you didn't show off your magic every five seconds, you'd have all sorts of applicants ganging up on you to thaw out the competition," Killua shot back, offering her a glare to shut down the embarrassment that unnerved him deep down, "In other words, it's that lax side you have that gives you all these openings." Marisa's strangely straightforward disposition had not weakened in any fashion from his arguments, however, and Killua, in staring Marisa's way, almost as if reflexively saw that small room again, and Gon grinning over his reckless decision-making. Grimacing, Killua could not help but add with narrowed eyes: "Kinda like Gon, now that I think about it..."

"I guess he's from another dimension now?" Marisa snickered, placing a hand partially over her mouth in a failed attempt to resist the urge.

"He's just some weirdo," Killua snapped, processing that Marisa had heard him clearly when he muttered that last part, and that Marisa was somehow not finding credibility in his words, "It's not like he's all calm like you are about it or anything, so he just doesn't have common sense. I mean, normally, if things are looking bad, you back off, right? But he likes it! He likes the danger! Isn't that totally out of whack?"

"Was he like that?" Marisa asked, eyes slightly wide simply from the prospect Killua was suggesting.

The question served only to fuel Killua's simultaneously awed and sour thoughts, and the broom near the railing as Killua claimed wholeheartedly, "Reimu can vouch for me on this one. You just haven't noticed yet! We were facing off _Hisoka,_ and he was actually having fun, of all things."

"Wait, seriously...?!"

"Right? That's the normal reaction to something like that," Killua said in quick succession to Marisa's genuine shock, "and just a while ago, that old geezer went up to us for a game. He knew we didn't have a chance of snatching that ball from him and was just messing with us anyway, but what do you think Gon did about that? He just played anyway for no real reason. 'I at least wanna get him to use his right arm and leg,' he said!"

"Is that what happened that made you split?" Marisa asked, her expression almost neutral if not for her slow blinking, as if she were still pondering on Killua's words.

"I didn't wanna be part of some geezer's attempt at playing us for fools." Killua shook his head to dismissively and further illustrate his point, saying, "Do I look like a masochist? Of course I quit. I actually know what I'm doing, after all. But..." Killua's eyes narrowed, and his gaze now focused less on Marisa and more on the floor she stood on, Killua noticed a strange fact about what would have been his rant on Gon's bizarre attitude: Killua had wanted to cut some slack to his words, then, but he had already found a smile on his face before he could make it anew. It had perhaps been there all along, but it only widened when he continued with his paused train of thought: "I bet he did make the most out of it, in the end; whether he made the chairman use his right arm and leg or not. He probably doesn't care about any of that. Interesting, right?"

"Looks like you two get along," Marisa said quicker than Killua had predicted, warranting him to blink in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Suggest something you two'd wanna do together, next time," Marisa said plainly, though she smiled proudly, as if she could already picture the scenario in motion. "Then you don't have to be bothered over not joining in because it's not your thing, right? He's no friend of yours if you can't impose your interests on him and know he'll have your back. Veteran's experience."

Killua scowled as his first reaction, but it was unsustainable in light of how he thought of Marisa's casual statements, their implications multiple. Practically-speaking, it was only an obvious idea, one not foreign to Killua at all, so it was unnecessary. On the other hand, one part of it hung a bit too heavily in his mind. His mind would not dare directly refer the word 'friends' even as an echo of Marisa's voice, and associate with Gon. As such, for a few seconds, uncertain, Killua's gaze was blank pondering and avoiding pondering on Gon as his friend. His friend he did not save or prioritize, then, but he regretted it even now, strangely enough. However, it was also true he was interesting, and fun to be with **—** Killua saw Marisa's head tilt to the side slightly, and he immediately latched on that confusion to simply glare at her, and dispel the needless thought. "Wait, who asked you for advice, anyway? I didn't wanna hear any of that!"

"Sorry, sorry," Marisa said carelessly in return after faintly chuckling, only to smile wryly. "You're probably doing well enough you make bracelets and everything, so I'm being nosy, huh?"

"Who's making friendship bracelets here?" Killua retorted.

"A shared diary?"

Killua cringed, unable to even bear the mental image. "I shouldn't have told you anything."

"C'mon, Killua," Marisa said brightly in contrast with Killua's previous despondent claim. "It's just a joke. You don't look all that amused, though."

"Whose fault do you think that is?" Killua sourly countered, arms crossed as he awaited Marisa's counter-argument, but she had been silent for the second after. She had shown him a more lopsided smile instead, and Killua was made to wonder, blinking slowly as he saw Marisa look briefly towards the rising sun.

Then, she assumed a more cheerful smile, and said in a strangely matter-of-fact fashion, "Y'know, you should take it easy. He's an interesting kid, isn't he? Then that's that."

"What're you even talking about?" Killua genuinely asked, blunt confusion evident on his rough features.

She frowned under the unwarranted glare from Killua, and scratched the back of her head. "I dunno," she said, "Wasn't something up with Gon?"

"Nothing's up with Gon," Killua quickly responded, "He's the same as when I met him. In other words, still a dork."

"Well, sounds like fun," Marisa said. "So is it you who's got something?"

Lightly taken aback by Marisa's nonchalant tone asking such a question, Killua slowly pointed to his own face as he thinly frowned. "Me?"

"Yeah," Marisa immediately uttered.

 **. . .**

"... Like something'd be up with me," Killua countered simply, and only found himself able to think on the matter after the fact. In truth, before Marisa had suddenly awoken and distracted him from the boredom of being unable to sleep, he had wondered about the Hunter Exam. About the First Phase. Killua looked aside vacantly. "I just have stuff on my mind."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"No, it isn't," Killua argued dismissively, grimacing despite not facing Marisa. "I'm thinking, but I'm not depressed about it. It's kinda boring, though." Killua's eyes narrowed as he confirmed his own designation of the topic, and his expression softened when he noted it was, in fact, perfect for such an impractical train of thought. He shifted his gaze back to Marisa, and she smiling far too simply for Killua to draw implications out of her stance.

"Boring, huh?" she uttered absent-mindedly, as if tempting the word as well; perhaps seeking an explanation.

"It's boring, so I'm gonna stop," Killua said instead, giving more emphasis than normal to that particular sentence. "Doesn't that make sense?"

"Guess it does," Marisa said with a shrug. "No use filling your head with stuff that'll get you nowhere. It's times like these you gotta forget it all."

The specific wording warranted Killua to hum pensively, seeing it as indicative of more than a careless advice that Marisa herself had never practiced. If only out of vague curiosity, and to have her shoulder the burden of exposing her own emotions, Killua asked flatly, "Are you the one who's got something, then?"

"Huh? Me?" Marisa questioned in a voice only slightly louder than usual, and all her movement had stopped as though she were frozen.

"Who else?" Killua dully retorted.

 **. . .**

Marisa smiled bashfully and waved her hand in a attempt at being humble, dismissing the question. "What, worried about me, now? Since when did you learn to respect your elders?"

"Are you avoiding the topic right now?" Killua sharply questioned, and Marisa was forced to ponder.

She frowned, her chin resting now on her left hand. "I don't got anything, though," Marisa said, only to grimace. "More like my subconscious does. Can't help that." Reminded of the very reason Marisa had been up much earlier than anyone else, Killua nodded slowly in regards to the reasonable bitterness she exuded from the nightmare's interference. However, even after the few seconds she had been glaring at nothing, she glanced downward, and pointed to her right arm. "Oh, it also sucks having a broken arm, but that's a given." _That's it?_

"... You're dull," Killua stated, and was not surprised to see Marisa smirk.

"Ya mean resilient, right?"

"If anything, shouldn't you be the one invested in figuring out Nen if you were the one who got attacked?"

"Reimu's got it covered," Marisa said loosely, shrugging. "As long as I have fun, it's whatever. I'm not about to waste time thinking about bad stuff like that when I can just sightsee the exam." Her exceedingly lax stance seemed to quickly fade after she rolled her eyes, as she then smiled casually, facing Killua with curiosity. "Speakin' of, how's the exam going for you?"

"The exam?" Killua first voiced, and grimaced noting Marisa had, naturally, hit the bull's eye and caused him to remember his conversation with Netero, the first catalyst of his sour mood. "Ugh."

"That bad?"

"Look, I went in here thinking it'd be a breeze," Killua said, "and then I get into all sorts of troublesome stuff instead." He sighed afterwards, but not as a result of his statement, but of having even been affected by the old man. "Give me a break."

"Sucks for you, I guess," Marisa plainly said, her eyes reflecting little in the way of empathy to the point Killua wondered if she was making fun of him.

"Weren't you the one who was asking?" Killua retorted, and Marisa, maybe because she was sick of standing in the same position, had decided to lean on the railing, and she faced Killua with a small smile.

"Doesn't look like it's that big a deal, if you've just been thrown off-guard," she said, "Least you're not bored."

"That's not the point—" Killua paused by instinct, but figured quickly why he had given up on that answer; it was not the truth. "Well, actually, that _is_ the point. Huh..." He blinked in mild surprise, thinking over that simple fact he had been neglecting in his thought process: his own amusement, regardless of the Hunter Exam. _That geezer was taunting me, but it's not like I was wrong. I think this exam has been nothing but dull. Then again, this is a time killer. As far as that's concerned, I've gone through so much stuff in the boring exam I can't help thinking about it. I guess she's at least right about one thing; I'm not bored._

"You alright over there?" Marisa asked in light of Killua's sudden silence, which had lasted almost a quarter of a minute.

Despite his own distraction, Killua did not show himself surprised from Marisa's interjection, and instead found himself smiling just as casually as Marisa. "It's been fun," he said, "the exam." Then, he glanced down, noting the bamboo that made up the simple broom, showing no signs of how it was able to become so magical. "That aside, I didn't come here for that. You already showed me most of the curtain fire stuff you can do now, right?"

"Pretty much," Marisa said, "You're already on the broom and everything, so there's only the sunrise now."

"No way," Killua asserted, "I still haven't checked the most important part."

"What's that?"

"Your broom's max speed," Killua said, pointing at the broom. He frowned in preemptive disappointment, and saw Marisa's smile widening from the corner of his eye. "This thing's gotta at least keep up with Reimu, or it's basically junk."

"Heh, you've got good priorities there," Marisa said, "My broom's fast, alright. I'm not the fastest human in Gensokyo for no reason. Then again, can't say it'll go the same way if just _anyone's_ on it."

Killua met Marisa's eyes, seeing them narrow deviously. "Really, now?" he asked lowly as a roundabout warning, while Marisa looked past him without hesitation.

"Yup. See that tall tree over there? Three second's how much I'd need to go around it," Marisa said while motioning toward a particular tree with her head's swaying along, "maybe less. What about you, though? Think you're up for that kinda speed?" Before answering, Killua followed Marisa's gaze, and happened upon the tree in question, which was getting farther and farther from their position due to the moving state of the airship. The tree stuck out from the others in the forest as many meters taller, and its foliage was lighter, differing from the type of tree present more common in the area.

Seeing the clear target, and its distance, even if becoming more challenging with the passing seconds, Killua smirked. The vacant swaying of his legs had stopped, and he nodded after locking eyes with a proud Marisa. "Oh, you're on," he said, "Just you watch." His left leg shifted to the other side of the broom, and he grabbed onto the end in front of him to begin his swift movement.

In the blink of an eye, Killua was already gone, and Marisa was taking in the sight with a hint of pride, in both her broom and in Killua. For the next two hours, Marisa and Killua engaged in voicing varying dares to each other, all of which both parties completed with only moderate difficulty and while relishing on their competitive streaks. Unbeknownst to Killua, he was not the only one returning from the airship's roof in high spirits (though he had and would never admit that to Marisa), as Marisa was equally refreshed, distracted from her unfixable concerns. Both chatted vividly on their trek back to their room, and were met with other applicants who were already awake, none of which they had ever spoken with.

When they found Reimu leaving the room they had all been resting in, Marisa, Reimu and Killua simply searched for another corner to freely talk in, and out of the group of six, they were the only ones not to be woken up by the announcement of the applicants' arrival to the site of the third phase.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

From a distance, the tower seemed almost like a needlessly tall cylinder protruding in the deep forest, or so Reimu had noted when she looked out the window. The announcement of their arrival was an hour and a half before the expected time, but she was not especially fazed by that seeing as she would waste further time with the Hunter Exam whether she arrived early or not. Furthermore, she was having a serviceable time chatting with Marisa and Killua, who showed themselves strangely energetic for the early morning.

Leorio and Kurapika had joined the three upon being awoken by the announcement, and Gon soon followed, only to inform where he had been so as to ease the two's worries. Without more time to converse, however, the six headed for the airship's exit along with the rest of the applicants, while Reimu saw that the only staff from the Selection Committee to walk after them was the short green man known as Beans.

"This is the top of Trick Tower," Beans, the secretary of the Selection Committee had explained in a calm voice, "It will constitute as the starting point of the exam's third phase. As for the goal of the exam, I've received the following message from the examiner: 'reach the base of the tower alive; the time limit is seventy two hours.'"

Even now, about five minutes after the departure of the airship along with Beans, his words echoed in the applicants' minds as they loosely surveyed the area. It was but a wide circle, entirely flat if not for the slightest gaps in between what Reimu and Marisa perceived to be the floor tiles. Naturally, the surroundings were of no importance for the two otherworldly young women, whose smirks only evidenced their assured victory. Some applicants shifted their gazes to Reimu and Marisa almost reflexively from the surging memories of their flying forms easily plowing through every phase of the exam; Killua and Leorio in particular were sending glares their way.

"Is the examiner planning on failing everybody but Reimu and Marisa?" Leorio bitterly questioned as he glanced around, finding nothing of note beyond other applicants. "They're the only two people who can actually get to the bottom of this thing without dying! How're we normal people supposed to get past this one?!"

Meanwhile, Gon was standing by the edge of the top of the tower near Killua, but he had heard Leorio's protests clearly due to the sheer volume of his voice. "It's not like we could climb this kind of tower, either," Gon remarked as he looked down with a frown. "I wonder what the examiner wants out of us..."

"If you're so stumped, we could always give you a ride," Marisa interjected from Gon's right, though her words were meant for the four she was acquainted with. Leorio and Kurapika were only a mild distance from Gon and Killua who had walked for the edge, while Reimu and Marisa stood between them triumphantly comparatively to any applicant. "We've known each other for a pretty good while; it's the least we can do for ya." Marisa winked their way, only to glance at Reimu with a crooked smile; Reimu responded in kind, suppressing the urge to snicker with sadistic glee.

"You just wanna show off, you lying witch," Killua countered.

"Bad kids don't get free rides," Marisa slyly retorted, even as Killua seemed to be confidently smirking in return.

Condescendingly, he huffed. "Who says I'd wanna get a free ride from you? Bad kids like me are smart enough to just make off with your broom and leave you stranded."

"Too bad, 'cause my broom flies only if I want it to," Marisa quickly retorted, "Since it's magic and all."

Killua blinked curiously. "Seriously?"

"She's lying," Reimu answered for Marisa, who frowned once she noted Reimu smiling deviously at her, as well.

"Oh," Killua voiced vacantly, processing the meaningless lie. He shrugged it off, but was still grimacing. "Whatever. If push comes to shove, I'll pawn off the broom and take Gon with me."

"And what about us?!" Leorio shouted, and when met with Killua's curious gaze, waved his way as if to assert his presence.

"Huh?" Killua uttered, and took a few seconds to confirm his identity as Leorio, with Kurapika by his side. "Oh, yeah. I guess I can take you, too. I'd feel bad for it otherwise. Guess you'd all be helpless without me, huh?" He smirked while shaking his head dismissively, suppressing an urge to snicker in face of their inferiority.

"Without my broom, you mean," Marisa added, and Killua waved off the statement with a single hand.

"Same difference," he said, only to shift his gaze to Marisa again. "What about you, though? You can't fly without the broom, can you?"

"It'd be more troublesome without it, if anything," Marisa responded.

"Guess I got no choice but to cover for you, too, huh?" Killua remarked, yet again displaying an entirely malicious smirk. "I'm faster on the broom than you are, anyway."

Marisa imitated Killua's expression, and her hand gripped the broom behind her on reflex. "We're gonna see about that," she said, "Just ya wait!"

"Ah..." Killua was the first to look towards Gon, curious as to what would cause him to unwilling raise his voice. "Look," Gon said as he pointed to the sky, and Killua was equally the first to come to his side in order to see whatever appeared to interest Gon. Marisa followed after them in a quick fashion, while Reimu, Leorio and Kurapika were slower in their tracks, confusion overwhelming their speed.

Marisa, who was looking down at the uniform walls of the tower, commented with some awe, "Woah, that guy's climbing the thing." In fact, since he was still close to the top of the tower, the applicant was not yet a shadow in the horizon, but a muscled individual looking down at all times, as if to carefully decide his footing on a tower that appeared to have no footing whatsoever.

"People can climb this kind of tower?!" Leorio quickened his pace to watch by Marisa's side, only to step back from bewilderment. "I can't even believe it..."

"No, not that," Gon said while lightly shaking the arm he was using to point to the sky, as if to garner Leorio's attention through the gesture. "Over there."

Kurapika, who stood between Leorio and Reimu widened his eyes in shock when he finally followed the direction of Gon's stretched index finger and noticed the growing shadows approaching the tower. "That's..." It was only then Leorio had taken clear note of the sight, and his shock became of a nature greater than Kurapika's.

"What in the hell are those things?!" he voiced so loudly other applicants had turned to confirm if there was something worth a commotion, but they did not appear as fazed as him even despite seeing the creatures nearing the tower.

Reimu was also unfazed, but in a differing way. Her eyes narrowed as though to focus on the target in the distance, and she took out three needles with her left arm while assuming a fighting stance. "Whatever they are, they're dead meat if they get in my way!"

"They're not aiming for the top, though," Killua said, his neutral voice a great contrast to the other five, who each assumed a different kind of investment in the situation. Reimu paused her movements to face Killua was confusion, only to decide to follow his gaze. "They've got easier prey to catch."

Marisa, Leorio and Kurapika grimaced processing Killua's words, and saw four flying creatures with a disturbingly large head making their way to a position lower than the top; the precise area the applicant who had decided to climb was at. The two closest to him flashed their wide rows of small teeth in an attempt to gnaw at the applicant's body and devour him themselves. The other two hovered around them in order to steal the prey, but by the time the applicant had realized his fate, it had been too late, and he was not fast enough to climb back to the top or to leisurely avoid the creatures.

As such, the gruesome sight was witnessed by the six, most of them with heavy hearts. "Reaching the base of the tower from the outside seems more like a risk than anything," Kurapika said, "We probably shouldn't rely on Reimu and Marisa's abilities to pass this time around."

"... You can say that again," Leorio dryly remarked, only to scowl. "But then, how're we supposed to get there at all?"

"There must be some sort of hidden passage on the top of the tower that leads us below," Kurapika responded, "It just wouldn't make sense for the examiner not to assume most of us don't have the means to even try to get to the base from the outside."

Gon nodded. "You've got a point there."

While Gon, Kurapika, Leorio and Killua were moving away from the edge, they noticed that Reimu and Marisa had not left along with them, and stared at them for half a second expectantly. "What? You two don't agree?" Leorio asked as he tapped his foot impatiently.

Reimu and Marisa looked behind them, but judging from their strangely easygoing expressions, there was no particular indication that they were going to leave their positions. "We do think you're right, but then again..." Marisa paused in order to glance back at the edge of the tower, and Reimu stored her needles in favor of taking out paper charms, instead.

"If it's only a bunch of creepy monsters, we can probably take them on by ourselves just fine," Reimu said, ending Marisa's sentence. She saw the four's blank reactions to her claim, but even in light of that, Reimu was only thinly frowning. "So, I suppose this is where we part ways until you pass the phase, too."

"Huh?!" Leorio blinked, only to trembled in fury. "Didn't you just see that applicant getting eaten?! How do you think you're gonna survive against that?!"

"C'mon, they're not any worse than Hisoka," Marisa retorted. Leorio was speechless before the vacant comeback, while Kurapika could not help but sigh.

"Well, we really can't say you're wrong about that," Kurapika muttered in resignation, "and it is true you're the only ones who could actually stand a chance fighting mid-air..."

"Y-you're supporting them, Kurapika...?!"

"I'm just stating the facts..."

"If I couldn't exterminate pests like that, I wouldn't be able to do my own job," Reimu said, "There's no way we'll lose."

"With that said, just you watch," Marisa said as she sat on her broom and took the miniature furnace from her pocket, tossing it upwards in a show of confidence. "Reimu and I might not look it, but we're specialists in this kinda field. Our magic's not just for show."

"Exactly," Reimu said with a smile. "So expect to see us at the base when you pass!" With that, Reimu jumped back, but stayed in the air next to Marisa as she watched Gon wave at her with curious eyes.

"Good luck, then!" Gon exclaimed, "I'll be rooting for you!"

Leorio clicked his tongue. "You two are really reckless, you know that?! You better be in one piece when we see you!"

"Yeah, yeah." Reimu waved her hand dismissively before turning around and beginning her flight downwards. When Marisa looked in her direction, she spotted paper charms being thrown to the sides already.

"See ya!" With a quick wave, Marisa followed after Reimu while aiming her furnace down at the two flying creatures she could already see. The thin laser that had come from it after seconds of charging the furnace was enough to pierce through one of the creature's heads entirely, leaving it no time to even scream from the pain, unlike the other one which was twitching under the shock of the magical power that had come from Reimu's paper charms.

Gon had been the first person to witness the pseudo-battlefield after a moment of staring towards the sky with the other three, as he was curious enough to step towards the edge of the tower again. He smiled apprehensively, only to remark, "I'm kind of feeling bad for the birds right now..."

"Seriously...?" Leorio scratched his head as the mental image of Reimu and Marisa knocking the eerie creatures to the ground with only a punch surged in his mind. "I know they can fly and have weird purple backdoors and all that, but it can't be that bad..."

"I don't know why you're even surprised, at this point," Kurapika said, "It's clear their powers defy all reason. I, for one, have stopped questioning them ever since I was forced to accept the existence of a witch of backdoors, for better or worse..."

"I get where you're coming from, but we should get to finding that hidden passage already," Killua said. "Gon! Stop watching that one-sided massacre and help us out here!"

"R-right!" Gon turned around and dashed for Killua, Leorio and Kurapika with a bashful frown, all the while he dismissed the train of thought pertaining Reimu and Marisa's powers and the kind of people they happened to be. Reimu and Marisa were people who could speak to Hisoka without flinching; people who would smile while taking on the rows of animals targeting their lives. They were surely used to the thrill of battle, but they continued to derive simple enjoyment from every endeavour.

Perhaps one day, Gon would be able to reach their heights, and join them in such endeavours. With that single hope pushed aside for the current situation, Gon was prepared to advance and pass no matter what, since he knew Reimu and Marisa were waiting for him.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Deep within Trick Tower lay a room illuminated only by hundreds of screens. Each of them displayed a different angle of the same building, and even its surrounding area: as of now, more than half of the applicants were no longer at the top of the tower, and were instead walking by hallways almost as dark as the room the examiner was located. A bag of potato chips sat still over the edge of an assortment of buttons, most of which necessary to operate varying parts of the building complex. The one presiding over that and the applicants was none other than Lippo, the Blacklist Hunter and examiner for the third phase. In his hand was half of a chip, awaiting consumption, and squinted eyes glanced over the left and right for anomalies in the real-time footage.

"Hm...?" Lippo grimaced as his gaze settled on a particular set of screens focusing on the outer parts of the tower. He adjusted his orange-tinted glasses as though to confirm there was no problem with his eyesight because of them, and his vacant hand pressed on a few nearby buttons at blinding speeds. Three of the cameras set to record the actions outside of the tower zoomed in on figures frantically flying in the air, producing different kinds of light that would either pierce or knock back the native creatures of the area. Lippo allowed the closest camera to these figures to pick up sound, and the room was filled with ominous collisions and shouts of clearly feminine voices.

"Take this!" The nearest camera captured a young woman dressed in red and white, whose flight seemed as natural as the wind. From the palm of her hand, an orb of light spun and augmented in size by the second; its colors were that of ying and yang, and it shone only faintly. Then, the orb was bashed onto the gigantic head of one of the birds relentlessly, sending it flying more than ten meters away from them. _A Nen-user...?_ "Ha!" In quick succession to the mysterious attack, the young woman directed her left leg to a creature right of her, which connected to a zone below its mouth. She then tossed the long stick that seemed to constitute as her weapon to her left hand, and used her right one to retrieve what Lippo could only perceive to be pieces of red paper with illegible inscriptions on them. She threw them towards the creature and immediately turned around to face another as she would lower herself to the ground, all in order to reach the base of the tower as tasked out of her. "Marisa, behind you!"

Lippo's gaze shifted to another screen, located above the one he had been observing. On it was projected the footage of another young woman, though her outfit seemed more akin to that of a traditional witch. Her blonde hair swayed wildly with the wind, and her appearance and flight were a stark contrast to her partner: she sat on a bamboo broom, and her hand was holding a small device not even Lippo could discern. "I was on it already!" She threw the device upwards while it shot out a narrow beam of light, and it almost grazed the end of her broom if not for her quick movement backwards. The creature in front of her, on the other hand, had flown instinctively in her direction and ultimately met its end when the beam cleanly pierced through its mouth and almost reached its eyes. Its consequent screech was a sign of the young woman's victory, so she smirked the moment her lightning fast broom crashed onto the flapping wing of the monster behind her. Then, without losing momentum, the young woman moved back and rose her only available hand to grab onto the device that had been in the process of falling. Her fumbling hand repositioned the apparatus to face the monster she had purposefully collided with, and another small, dark blue laser pierced through the middle of the creature's skull with ease.

Their display of fighting prowess was enough to distract the examiner, especially as he attempted to comprehend the kind of skills they were using, but he shook his head. Dismissing the train of thought pertaining their capabilities, he made sure to memorize the numbers on the tags that hung from their clothing: the young woman with the red ribbon was seventy seven, and the young woman in the massive black hat was seventy six; they were currently challenging the content of Lippo's exam. They were anomalies beyond his calculations. Although Nen-users were not unexpected, it was unprecendented that one would be able to fly continuously down a tower so tall and reach the bottom unscathed while fighting a myriad of deadly creatures. _Didn't they think there would be hidden passages...?_

"Man, these monster just keep comin'! Think it might've been easier to get to the bottom from the inside?!" the young woman in black and white questioned just as she kept an unstable balance over her broom with only one leg, having used the other to kick the creature in front of her before driving away another one to her left with fire that burst from the mysterious device on her hand.

"What are you talking about?!" the young woman in red retorted before whacking a creature to her right with her weapon and throwing her knee onto its head with all of her might. "This is already as easy as it gets! It's only the numbers that are a pain to deal with!"

Similarly enough, the young woman in black and white had jumped back and off of her broom upon pocketing her own weapon, only to reach for the broom with both hands and using it to hit two creatures in a row with one powerful swing. When she placed the broom below her again so as to keep herself firmly in the air, the young woman exclaimed, "Can't say you're wrong about that one!"

Lippo's eyes widened ever so slightly from the bewilderment he felt due to their stance. _Then, they figured that there were hidden passages on the top, but chose to fly down knowing it wasn't what I'd planned...?!_ A trembling hand stretched itself towards a few buttons once more, which turned off the sound and left the room in plain and complete silence. Furthermore, the cameras had zoomed out from the two young women, and displayed instead in more detail the consequential falls of the varying creatures bested by the two abnormal applicants. Deep within Lippo's thoughts surged an emotion beyond surprise, as that threatened to fade with the passing seconds he took to put a proper end to his realization.

His lips curled up into a smile. "Interesting..." _I never did specify how they should reach the tower's base,_ he thought, _In the end, it seems like these two decided to take their own path instead of the many laid out before them. If there's anything I should blame, it will be my own lack of foresight._ Faintly, he snickered while his eyes were locked onto the faraway figures representing the two young women slowly but surely approaching the ground. _Should they come out of this alive, it'll be a feat of its own._

With that in mind, he finally took the chip he had in his hand to his mouth and decided to watch, just as he would all of the other applicants.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

At the sight of the last two strangely human-faced flying creatures plunge to the ground with a thud, Reimu sighed. The two were littered with red paper charms, though one also had burn marks on one of its wings from Marisa's use of her miniature furnace. Just in case, Reimu and Marisa surveyed the sky once more from their position on near the base of the tower, but they found no signs of life above. "Those monsters sure were persistent," Marisa said, "If they had any survival instincts, they would've flown away the moment they saw the others dyin' off, but they just decided to stick around and get killed. It was almost sad, to be honest."

"Well, if they hadn't tried to kill us, we wouldn't have had to do anything in the first place," Reimu said, "So, as far as I'm concerned, they were asking for it."

"You got a point there." With that single statement marking the end of that topic, Reimu and Marisa's attention immediately shifted towards the base of the tower, which bore the same kind of walls as the top and the same dull beige colour. They had ignored the corpses of the strange creatures from the corner of their eyes and even the ones in plain sight, right next to the tower, and found themselves instead grimacing at another kind of realization. "But wait, where's the door? Are we even supposed to get into the tower?" Immediately after the question, Marisa jumped from her broom to the ground, and she glanced around the area.

Deciding to land as well, Reimu positioned herself by Marisa's side. "The other applicants had to get to the bottom from the inside, right? Then there should be some kind of door in here," Reimu responded as she walked around the tower, floating above the one corpse that had stood in her way. Marisa followed after her at a slower pace, but she was equally unable to spot an entrance from any side of the tower.

"Maybe the door's hidden," Marisa offered.

"Not that it matters whether it's hidden or not," Reimu said as she stopped in her tracks upon noticing she had already inspected the entire base of the tower, using the corpse she had floated over as a landmark to confirm that suspicion. "We still can't get inside if it doesn't open, and it doesn't look like there's anything over here that would open the door for us."

Reimu and Marisa briefly glanced around the area again, but were met only with slight foliage in the horizon and haphazard piles of corpses. Then, they looked each other's way with troubled expressions, pondering on their situation. Marisa's left hand was in a hidden pocket of her skirt, and she revealed her miniature furnace once she turned towards the tower's walls again. Her arm rose to aim it forward, while Marisa said, "Guess I'll blow a hole through the tower."

However, just as she was charging her laser, the wall in front of her seemed to tremble. "Wait," Reimu commanded as she extended her hand over Marisa's furnace in an attempt to stop her. Marisa immediately lowered her weapon, and watched as a part of the wall was lowering to reveal a circular room within the tower. Though it seemed dark and small from afar, Reimu and Marisa were smiling contentedly at the sight, considering only the fact that they had managed to enter the tower to begin with. "It looks like we didn't have to do anything after all."

"Or maybe whoever's controlling the door heard me sayin' I was gonna destroy the tower," Marisa lightly suggested as she passed by the tower walls and entered the surprisingly wide room constituting the base of the tower after Reimu, the most eager to enter and pass the phase. "Least they didn't think I was bluffing, 'cause I was actually serious."

 **"Reimu, applicant number seventy seven, is the first to pass the Third Phase."** Reimu and Marisa looked up at the ceiling of the room, but found nothing able to originate the mysterious voice that had just announced their victory. As far as they could tell, it was a male voice, and its owner was likely not inside or near the room. **"Marisa, applicant number seventy six, is the second to pass the Third Phase. Total time used: forty six minutes."**

"Did we take that long to beat those monsters?" Reimu absent-mindedly questioned. "I thought we were pretty quick about it."

"Then again, the time limit's seventy two hours," Marisa retorted, "so we were way quicker than the examiner was expecting, at least." Marisa turned around so as to take a glimpse of the outside, but blinked in incredulity at the fact that she could no longer spot the passage that led them inside. "Where did the door go this time, though?"

"Huh?" Reimu glanced around the circular room, but was similarly unsuccessful in locating the door. She crossed her arms, grimacing. "Didn't we pass? Why would we have to be locked in?"

"I don't know," Marisa promptly stated, "I guess it's 'cause of those closed passages all around us?" She then pointed at one, the space between it and the two on its sides about half a meter, implying the passages were somewhat narrow. "If everybody's gonna get here from the inside, these doors are gonna be their entrance, and the passage we just went through's the exit."

"So, you're saying we got locked in because the others aren't meant to leave? For seventy hours?"

"... Pretty much." Marisa headed for the wall near where she remembered the exit lay, and placed her backpack against the wall. Then, she sat next to it, and stared at Reimu, who was standing still from her indignation. Reaching out for her backpack, Marisa asked lightly, "You up for some cards now? 'Cause we're gonna be stuck here for a long time."

Reimu groaned.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Reimu continued to groan. "I've only just now finished this stupid card tower and it feels like I've been here for an entire day." She let herself fall to the ground and stared at the ceiling with a scowl. In front of her feet was a sizable tower of cards in the form of a triangle, but it quickly crumbled from the wind caused by Reimu's abrupt movement.

"Least you finished it," Marisa begrudgingly countered, "It's been hours and I'm still trying to set up the base. My fingers hurt like Hell." Having been able to see Reimu's fall from the right, albeit from the corner of her eye, Marisa saw no need to see Reimu's expression, and instead inwardly expressed her condolences for the card tower Reimu had constructed nigh effortlessly. Marisa stared intently at the one card in her hand, but the focus did not seem to improve her shaky grip, proving only that her left hand was not her dominant one.

"Well, you're the one who suggested making them," Reimu argued cleanly against Marisa's own negativity, giving Marisa a single glance, enough to note her unsteady performance. To Marisa's credit, she had set up a pair against each other already, and the second was underway; it was more than Reimu would bear without simply giving up, were she injured. "Why do you want to show it up to Hisoka so badly, anyway? It's just a bunch of cards."

"'Cause I don't like his face, that's why," Marisa responded easily, her voice further sour in light of her memories with Hisoka; also known as the man who tried to kill her once. _Not that that's a big deal to him._ "And also, I'm freakin' bored. What else am I gonna do in a small room for seventy two hours?"

Reimu sighed despondently, her head sinking to her forearms behind it serving as a cushion. "If I'd known beating up those monsters would lead to this, I would have just joined the other applicants..."

 **"Hisoka, applicant number forty four, is the third to pass the Third Phase. Total time used: six hours and seventeen minutes."**

"Speak of the devil." Marisa lazily shifted her gaze to the right, where she saw Hisoka walk out of an open passage, the very first one to be in that state. _It's been six hours already?_ Marisa squinted after thinking that, unable to believe her eyes were spotting what seemed to be a bloody scratch on Hisoka's shoulder, identified through the reddened stain on the tattered fabric. _And Hisoka of all people's injured. Now that's gotta be some phase._

"Oh?" Hisoka eyed Marisa with a sly smile the moment he had heard her voice, and noted Reimu's presence nearby as well. "Were you talking about me, now?" Reimu, meanwhile, could not even conjure the energy to feel more displeasure for the situation than she already was, so she saw Hisoka's slow, calm stride in their direction with complete neutrality, even despite the needless intensity in his narrowed gaze towards her.

"Marisa apparently doesn't like your face," Reimu plainly stated, "Not that I blame her." She stared back at the ceiling, vacantly noticing her stomach was ever so slightly becoming cold because it was exposed, a direct consequence of having haphazardly lay down on the hard floor. Her knees, which had been raised, were back down from instinctive caution of the unwanted applicant in the area, who she was sure would still gaze at her.

"That isn't very surprising," Hisoka dismissively said, his normally low voice surprisingly carefree in reaction to the remark from Reimu. "What about you, Reimu? What do you think?"

"Of you?" Reimu questioned, and found herself bored enough to glance at Hisoka to gauge her answer. Seeing Hisoka at arm's length from her, she glared towards his legs, as it took too much effort to shift her gaze to Hisoka's easy smirk. "Nothing much. I've got better things to think about than you."

Hisoka chuckled before settling on a wall near Reimu to sit against, only centimeters away from her face. "How cold," he loosely remarked, only pretending to be mildly fazed. "And here I thought I had at least a bit of your consideration." Forced to stare at Hisoka if only from the uncomfortable proximity, Reimu watched as he slowly slid down to lie next to her in a roughly similar position.

"My consideration goes as far as wanting to exterminate you the moment I find out you were lying to me all along," Reimu countered before removing her arms from the back of her head and using them to support her weight as she stood from her position, "and in getting away from you; give me some space!" In her anger, Reimu seemingly hopped back from Hisoka, glaring his way before glancing back to note Marisa's position. Reimu was now immediately next to Marisa instead, and she frowned when setting her eyes back on Hisoka, who bothered only to tilt his head to the side slightly to see Reimu, and remained on the floor, his arms behind his head. In light of his unwillingness to move away, Reimu could not help but resentfully add: "You really just _had_ to show up while I was hoping to take a nap..."

"You're more than welcome to take a nap here, though," Hisoka said as he freed one of his arms to pat the location Reimu had previously been lying down on, which, as already known by Reimu, was _extremely_ close to his own. "Right next to me, that is."

Too curious to ignore the situation, Marisa leaned forward to observe Hisoka despite Reimu being directly in front of her, and immediately scowled. "Reimu's reckless, but she's not THAT reckless," she interjected, only to shift her gaze to Reimu's back. "Right...?"

"Of course!" Reimu said as she stomped around Marisa's attempt at a card tower in a huff, and stopped when she was next to Marisa's backpack. "Anyway, I'm staying next to you so you better wake me up if Hisoka tries anything funny, alright?"

"Will do," Marisa vacantly stated after having already began focusing on her cards again, sparing not even a glance to Reimu, who laid down to Marisa's left and immediately closed her eyes. "I'll be taking the cards you used, by the way."

"Sure, take them all you want," Reimu responded with a dismissive wave of her hand, though her eyes had remained closed.

Despite her words, Marisa was not yet willing to stand from her position and retrieve Reimu's cards, seeing as she was still too busy with her own. At that point, all conversation with Hisoka had been cut, but Marisa could faintly feel Hisoka staring intently at them. For a few hours, silence permeated the room.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

 **"Gittarackur, applicant number three hundred and three, is the fourth to pass the Third Phase. Total time used: twelve hours and two minutes."**

By then, Reimu and Marisa were both awake (and Marisa was no longer trying to build the card tower), and they watched as the bizarre-looking applicant surveyed his surroundings with a blank, unnatural gaze walking towards the opposite end of Hisoka's spot. His legs twitched slightly as he had walked, as if out-of-place. "Is he even human?" Marisa neutrally questioned, too bored to sound emotional after hours of sitting inside a single space, offering them nothing but the occasional trays of food from a compartment near what she remembered to be the exit of the tower. In that direction was also a passage even small than the others, but unlocked, leading to a bathroom, which both Reimu and Marisa had used already, together and always with their belongings nearby, if only out of caution for Hisoka.

"It could be a magical beast," Reimu blankly stated without any actual thought put into the guess, her voice loud enough that it was equally clear she was not making an effort to be quiet so the applicant in question would not hear her.

"He's human." Reimu and Marisa immediately shifted their attention to their right, where Hisoka lay sat against a wall with a cheerful smile.

"And how're you so sure of that?" Marisa questioned with a raised eyebrow, suspicious of the fact that he had engaged in conversation with them now of all times.

"If he weren't, he wouldn't be able to take the Hunter Exam," Hisoka said with ease, though even he was unsure if there existed such a rule. Regardless, Marisa slowly nodded to his response, and Reimu remained silent as she watched another passage open.

"Take that, I'm totally the first **—**!"

 **"Hanzo, applicant number two hundred and ninety six, is the fifth to pass."**

"What?! The fifth?!" Reimu locked eyes with the bald applicant for a moment, only for him to sourly huff and storm off to another corner of the room. She was sure she had seen him before, particularly on the second phase, though he was still enough of a nuisance in the first one, she noted.

 **"Total time used: twelve hours and three minutes."**

Deciding not to further dwell on unpleasant thoughts, finding it surprising that she had remembered the man at all, Reimu looked towards Marisa blankly. "Those four sure are late," Reimu remarked with a grimace and she glanced over a few of the closed passages, as if trying to guess from which ones 'those four' would exit from.

"Ya mean Gon and the others?" Marisa questioned.

"Who else?"

"Well, the time limit is seventy two hours," Hisoka interjected casually, and Reimu and Marisa were forced to regard him again. He had remained on the same spot as before, and as far as they were able to notice, Hisoka had not gotten any sleep through the twelve hours, but there was no change to his stance and lack of openings. "All things considered, we're the ones who passed the test too early, and your friends will be just on time." Despite what seemed like encouraging words, Hisoka's half-lidded gaze almost as if leaked malice beyond Marisa and Reimu's comprehension, and Reimu could not help but glare back at him.

"You just had to remind me of that time limit..." Reimu begrudgingly muttered, while Marisa looked over Hisoka with curiosity, focusing on his shoulder. Perhaps indicative of Hisoka's strangely nonchalant attitude, he had done nothing about the scratch deep enough to bleed into his clothing, and considering how he moved, he displayed no signs of pain. Now, he was simply sitting down, loosely shuffling a set of cards, with his eyes entirely on Reimu and Marisa.

"What was this test all about anyway? You went through it from the inside like everybody else, right? If it's enough to get you injured, it's gotta be a hard one," Marisa commented while using her left hand to lean forward from her sitting position, pressing it down to hold the upper half of her body without straining her back. Reimu looked down at Marisa's awkward position from behind, frowning as if unimpressed.

"Oh, it wasn't that difficult," Hisoka said conversationally, and shrugged just as loosely, "I just had to avoid some traps."

"How does something like that take at least six hours to get through?" Reimu shot back with crossed arms, now glaring Hisoka down simply because he was in her line of sight.

"The tower has a lot of floors," Hisoka explained, "so it takes a while to reach the bottom." Marisa leaned back on the wall after getting over the needless ease Hisoka spoke of the phase, as if he had been entirely unaffected. _A tower that big only gets him one scratch?_ Marisa thought with a frown, _Or am I supposed to be thinking the tower's hardcore enough to give him a scratch at all? What a headache. Then again, only the strong-looking folk have been arriving, and Gon and the others aren't around._

"If you think about it that way, the applicants are avoiding hundreds of floors worth of traps in a row," Marisa said suddenly with a grimace, making Reimu look back at her with a curious expression. "That sounds tough as hell to me. No wonder the time limit's seventy two hours."

Now focused on more than her lack of appreciation for Hisoka's existence, Reimu cast her eyes to the floor in front of her, grimacing like her companion. "It definitely won't be easy on them, since it's not like they have any kind of powers," Reimu muttered pensively, and sighed. "But, well, there isn't much we can do about it now. We'll just have to hope they make it in time."

"Yeah..."

"Do those four interest you that much?" Reimu was the first to hunch forward so as to look towards Hisoka, but she simply stared his way in confusion, perceiving it odd he would ask such a question to begin with. As always, his own smirk was unreadable, and neither Reimu or Marisa could understand the ulterior motives hidden behind it; albeit it was clear they were never going to be benevolent.

Marisa tempted the prospect of playing along, and plainly uttered, "We don't know them that well, but we can at least tell they're good people; just hopin' they all pass, too."

"Something like that," Reimu answered nonchalantly after glancing at Marisa, noting her wry smile.

"Is that all, I wonder?" he asked, drawing out the last of his words in a needlessly soft tone, causing the two young women to tense, scowling his way.

"What else are we supposed to say?" Reimu countered.

"Well, it's been fun hanging out with them, if anything," Marisa said, only to concentrate the bulk of her resentment to an area contrary to Hisoka's position, as she still remembered where the exit lay, "so now we're regretting blowing the chance to do that for beating some birds."

"If only I knew we'd be here seventy two hours..." Reimu muttered dejectedly, and rose her two arms in her frustration, which shook from the intensity of the strength in her fisted hands. "This sucks!"

While Marisa glanced vacantly at Reimu, offering an apologetic smile, Hisoka chuckled lowly. "Now, now," he said in a weak attempt at reassuring Reimu, "Considering I didn't meet any applicant on my way down, and the people so far have been arriving alone, they're probably just as split and lonely as you are. Rather, I'd see your position as the better one, since you went through no traps."

"He's got a point, for once," Marisa said while nodding to herself, "Imagine how much of a drag it'd be if I got separated from you."

"I suppose so..."

"You'd definitely have failed," Hisoka interjected cheerfully in contrast to his statement, and Marisa scowled.

"I never said I couldn't make it," Marisa said, "You shut up, Hisoka."

"You certainly aren't in a good mood, Marisa. Aren't you like that because you're tired?" Hisoka asked after averting his gaze from Marisa so as to solidify a mock wry expression, as though he had been hurt or concerned in any manner. Marisa could not help but blankly stare at the loose attempt, meant to be uncovered, and further watch it fade for an entirely devious smirk. "I can entertain Reimu by myself, so you should sleep for now."

"Your entertainment's the stuff of nightmares," Marisa immediately retorted, flashes of dodging playing cards running through her mind. "No way I'd sleep over that and not get even more tired from worrying."

Catching a brief glimpse of the pure displeasure in Marisa's lifeless eyes, Reimu huffed. "Not that you need to worry about me," she asserted before quickly standing from her seat, and stepping above Marisa's legs to be directly in front of Hisoka. Reimu looked back at Hisoka, and smirked proudly while waving her weapon around, and Marisa noted the Purification Rod was supposed to be near the backpack. "If you're tired, you can just sleep, Marisa. If anything, beating this guy up would be a great distraction from the waiting time."

"... I'm not actually sleepy, though," Marisa awkwardly uttered in light of Reimu's strangely optimistic and confident stance, and grimaced from the pressure of it. "Also, how'd I fall asleep with the sound of you fighting?"

"Either way, he's done for if he tries anything!" Reimu exclaimed while pointing her Purification Rod at Marisa accusingly, instead. Seeing Marisa's eyebrows raise from confusion, Reimu turned around to glare Hisoka down and brandish her weapon his way, as she had planned. "You heard that, too, right?!"

"Of course," Hisoka loosely said, as if he had not even truly thought of Reimu's words. With a smile perhaps too simplistic to be trusted, Hisoka continued with eyes narrowed to the point Reimu could hardly see them from her standing position, though he was staring at her. "But, I'm sure you know that it's anyone's fantasy to try what's forbidden, so it'll be a bit hard holding back; especially when you're right in front of me..."

Marisa cringed from behind Reimu, whose fists were trembling in fury, instead. "Well, that's your problem!" she ardently countered as her best way to conclude the argument, since it clearly would lead nowhere with someone like Hisoka. She locked eyes with him regardless, hoping to see to it he would back off on his own, but he chuckled as though further amused.

"You always give me such a nice look," Hisoka remarked in a low enough voice one could think he was muttering to himself, but he faced Reimu directly, his smile less than innocent to the point Reimu took a single, small step back from disgust. "Does your not trying anything rule count if you invite me like that?"

Reimu felt a hand over her shoulder, and was glad it came from behind her, as she was sure it was Marisa. She had stood as well, and grimly stated, "It's okay, Reimu. I'll take him down for you and save this dimension. Then, I'll take a bath."

"Just take the bath," Reimu said without sparing Marisa a glance, too busy glaring at Hisoka. "I've got this."

"Now that I think about it, Gon had a look similar to yours," Hisoka said, and the two froze immediately. "Pure and honest. There's a lot to look forward in him, too..." Whether unbeknownst to Hisoka or not, a chill ran down Reimu and Marisa's spine as a result of that eerily longing phrasing, and their eyes were now widened in shock.

In the seconds the two stood awkwardly still, the first to have her arm twitch was Reimu, who grimaced, unable to hide her apprehension as her arms continued to tremble. "W-what are you planning with Gon?" Reimu asked, similarly incapable of imposing her questions like before, her mind blank as if uncertain whether to continue thinking past the point she had been paralysed before Hisoka's implications.

"Oh, it's nothing special," Hisoka conversely answered with considerable ease, his smile widening over Reimu's clear discomfort, "Or could it be that you're jealous? Unripe as he is, I would say he's fierce competition, but you **—** " However, in light of Reimu and Marisa's next actions, Hisoka was as if forced to momentarily pause, watching Reimu and Marisa simultaneously step back from Hisoka while keeping their gazes fixated on him. "I see you're getting further from me as I speak. I'm talking about Gon's potential right now, for your information." Reimu and Marisa reluctantly stopped in their tracks, if only because there was nowhere to run towards.

"... Did it sound like that?" Reimu whispered to Marisa, finally looking away from Hisoka to reach Marisa's right ear.

"Nope," Marisa quickly whispered back, keeping an eye on a cheerful-seeming Hisoka as she spoke, "Hell, who knows what he means with 'potential'? We just gotta make sure Gon doesn't get exposed to this guy again."

"You're right about that."

"I can just catch up, you know?" Hisoka interjected casually, almost as a subtle taunt that the two flinched at.

"Don't!" Reimu and Marisa shouted back at the same time, and watched Hisoka shrug. He shifted his gaze towards his cards, letting the recent silence hang for a few seconds, while Reimu hesitantly took one step forward, as if to assert her lacking fear.

"It should go without saying Gon isn't the only one on my radar," Hisoka said suddenly enough that Reimu no longer felt like approaching Hisoka, whose gaze was as if unfocused, "This exam is a great place for talent of all sorts to gather and test themselves. It just so happens that you joined up with the finest-seeming specimen. Instinct, maybe? It's definitely a curious sight."

"... What're you going on about?" Marisa ultimately asked, her voice flat from genuine disinterest despite the question.

Reimu turned back to Marisa, saying, "More importantly, that means it's not just Gon who's in danger. We should keep an eye on Killua, too."

"Just picturing what kinda thoughts this guy's been having over them gives me the creeps," Marisa muttered sourly, only to shudder. "It's already bad enough he's a serial killer..."

"Well, don't think too hard about it," Hisoka said, and Marisa noted the set of cards Hisoka had been absent-mindedly shuffling had been reunited neatly, grasped somehow between only two of his fingers. "It's just my preferences." _Did he just admit it was more than fighting potential...?_ Marisa thought first and foremost, suppressing the urge to cringe once more, particularly as he was yet again staring at them intently, smiling in a strangely carefree manner. "By the way, you two are bored, aren't you? Then why not spend time together until your friends are back? I'll teach you a game or two."

"Hey, weren't you all against giving me cards the one time I asked? What gives?" Marisa quickly asked, eyebrows creased under the recollections of her conversations with Hisoka, none of them good. She was grabbing onto Reimu's shoulder, peeking from the side ever since he had started speaking, and cursed his lack of signs of apprehension despite the accusation.

"That's different," Hisoka responded, only to raise the hand holding the cards slightly so they would more easily be spotted by Reimu and Marisa. "It's because you wouldn't make good use of them. Though, I guess watching you fail with your own cards was interesting in its own right."

Marisa's grip on Reimu's shoulder strengthened to the point Reimu shook her off, and Marisa, thrown aback, nervously shot back, "Y-you were watching the whole time? That wasn't a show. At least say hi or somethin'!"

"How demanding," Hisoka remarked without a single sign of being troubled, "Though, even if you refuse, there's always Reimu, right?"

"Huh?" Reimu uttered as her first reaction to Hisoka mentioning her name, only to scowl as she placed a hand on her hip. "Why would I have to be there for you?"

" _Seventy two hours._ " The mere set of words caused Reimu to flinch, each one elongated purposefully by Hisoka, who phrased them like the arch-nemesis Reimu considered them to be. "That sounds like an awful amount of time to be sitting around doing nothing, wouldn't you say so?" Bringing further emphasis to Reimu's boredom, Reimu was overwhelmed by what she perceived to be solid arguments, and, to Marisa's dismay, slowly nodded.

Marisa, despite never explicitly agreeing to Hisoka's invitation, sat next to Reimu, who was near Hisoka so as to kill time, no matter the cost. After half an hour, feeling as though no applicant would have the courage to stop Hisoka if he were to try something, Reimu and Marisa began sleeping by turns, and what they assumed to be the next morning was again spent with Hisoka, for better or worse...

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Sometimes, within abyssal darkness, he would hear voices. Cheery, unfamiliar voices, speaking to one another while remarking on someone who was asleep. Who were they referring to? Could it be himself? His mind was hazy, and thought was few and far in between. Beyond the faintest sensations of reality that would rarely come upon him, his vision was of a blackness covered by miscellaneous dreams.

For once, however, there was no such fantastical imagery. Only the pure darkness that his unconsciousness had bestowed upon him, and nothing more. That, and the sound of footsteps; something sizzled from behind him, as well. What it was, he could not fathom. The situation itself was unfathomable to begin with. Feeling constrained, he wished to move. As such, he began with his hand. It twitched in place, and the footsteps stopped abruptly; his heart raced in anxiety, as he realized that the footsteps were likely a part of reality. A reality he could not yet see, in which two young women would often watch over his cold, tired body.

"Didn't he move just now?" The deeper of the voices belonged to the most adventurous girl, Mai.

"It wasn't just my imagination, then?" The most feminine voice, in turn, belonged to the cautious one, Satono. "But then again, this could be some sort of spasm. It doesn't mean he'll wake up."

They were speaking about him, yet again. Mai Teireida and Satono Nishida: the servants of one 'amazing Master' of origins unknown. Either way, it was clear they were not human, the master included. In another attempt to move his hand, he cupped it into a fist, slowly but surely, noting his every sore muscle. Something was awfully wrong with his condition, but no precise memory would surface in order to justify it.

"Maybe he's hearing us again? The Master did tell us he could just be responding to what he hears."

"Then I suppose there's nothing we need to report."

"Ugh, this is so boring... I just wanna see him awake so the Master can praise us already."

"Well, we did do quite a good job with our dancing. He apparently should have been taking even longer to recover if it weren't for us."

"It's all the Master's power, though. Which pretty much just means the Master's awesome."

"Indeed it does, indeed it does."

In fact, he had trouble recalling anything at all. What was his name, again? He was from Gensokyo, that he knew; from the Human Village, at that. Where else? The only human establishment in Gensokyo was the Human Village, and he was no exception to the rule, unlike those who would fight the youkai. Those whose lives seemed so much more fulfilling simply by the excitement of adventure without consequence: their power had always been an object of his distant admiration, something he knew he would never attain. However, now was different, and he had experienced his biggest disappointment yet. What was it, again...? In his village was a certain man; it was his friend, but his name slipped away from memory. His best friend, whose quick-witted personality had always served him and his peers good due to his active drive to help others.

One day, he confessed to him a few of Gensokyo's greatest secrets kept away from its small human population. From the way he spoke, he seemed almost like a new man; an enlightened person whose knowledge was a far cry from any other villager. He showcased to him perhaps his life's greatest miracle, and claimed that anyone could learn to use that art. That anyone deserved the freedom to feel alive and explore to their heart's content; and that no one would ever stand in their way ever again. Why was it, again...? What was it that he had promised to him that night...?

Would opening his eyes let him realize that which he had forgotten? Perhaps that was a risk worth taking, even if reality were to present him a situation of dangers he thought he would have been able to fearlessly face. A light groan resounded in the area, and he quickly noted it had come from himself, but even his voice sounded somewhat foreign to him. His eyelids twitched in his fierce attempt at opening them, and his hands trembled as though itching to move.

"Woah, woah, he just made a sound, right? Is that also part of that whole being in a coma business or what?"

"He could be waking up, but then again..."

Though only slightly, dark brown eyes revealed themselves to the two bystanders in the mysterious area, but their colorful figures were still blurry in his newly-awakened eyesight. "His eyes are open and everything; there's no way he isn't awake right now!" Mai exclaimed, "I'll tell the Master!"

Flashes of movement plagued his sight, with a pink figure nodding to the green one, which appeared farther and farther away from him now. "Where...?" With his strained, rough voice, he could only utter a single word, though it managed to garner the attention of the girl. She turned around to face him, and he was quickly able to discern the fact that this one was Satono rather than Mai, as Mai's voice rang faintly in his ears from the small distance she had taken to communicate with the mysterious 'master' entity.

"Don't move, alright? The Master wouldn't want us to hurt the person we've been trying to heal for weeks now." He could pick out a frown from Satono's youthful features, and his gradually improving eyesight was starting to note her slightly cautious, but not particularly stressed stance. Satono's right hand rested on her waist, and her purple eyes were focused solely on him, as if she was expecting him to take off running at any moment. "And I'm sure you wouldn't want to pick a fight so recklessly when you know you can't win in that state."

"You..." He blinked, moistening his eyes and leading him to further spot the multitude of doors adorning the surroundings. The location was almost as dark as his mind had been, though hints of purple light gave it the faintest illumination, and the doors came in multiple colours. None of them were particularly organized or upright: some were, but likely out of coincidence, as most were haphazardly placed; regardless, all of them were closed and from Satono's words, he could process that they all were the exit of the area. However, their master was an unknown among unknowns, and the probability of it being an especially strong youkai was extremely high. If he were to anger such a foe, would he survive, when he could not survive the Hakurei Shrine Maiden? He gasped. "Wait...!"

Finally, something more began to surface. Visions of red and white, and fierce shouts belonging to Gensokyo's most well-known figure. Even so, he could not recognize why he had been there. Why exactly did he fight the shrine maiden, again...? "Huh? What is it, mister?" Satono prodded in a mix of curiosity and confusion, "What am I supposed to be waiting for?"

"I was at the shrine..." That was the first thought in his mind upon hearing Satono's questions, but he had not truthfully meant to voice them. Out of instinct, and perhaps his own weariness, the words had occurred to him. "And..."

"And you were cleanly defeated by the Hakurei Shrine Maiden." A familiar voice was quick to reach his ears, but it was not as recognizable to him as Satono and Mai's were. He had heard it for less time, after all. Pressing his hand to the invisible ground, if it even existed, his torso rose, and his head turned to the side. The Master, he figured; her smirk was uncanny. "Do you remember everything that happened back then? It's been more than three weeks since then."

"Three weeks...?!" He proceeded to cough, feeling something caught in his throat. Meanwhile, Satono had moved to Mai's side, as she silently stood near the Master with a smile. "I..."

"Yes," the Master stated, "You've been in my care for approximately a month now." He could hardly believe it, but part of him knew that she was not lying to him. Her words matched all that he remembered of the two servants' conversations, and there was nothing beneficial in a youkai admitting to caring for a human's injuries. Even so, for a youkai, the Master's composure was perhaps far too dignified, or so he began to absent-mindedly think, too weak to will himself to swiftly speak. A delicate hand removed a lock of golden hair from the forefront of her figure, and she continued to speak in a firm voice: "Consider yourself grateful, for it was my power that let you awaken. Though, I can imagine you're overwhelmed already. Let me introduce myself: my name is Okina Matara. I'm sure the recent uproar has made my identity in Gensokyo quite clear."

"The Four Seasons Incident..." He remembered its contents, as its effects spread throughout the entirety of Gensokyo. "Then you're... You're the..."

"I am that very god, indeed," Okina said so as to finish his sentence. "Don't force yourself if you're still too weak to speak. The most I need out of you are yes or no answers for now, and we'll have plenty of opportunities to talk later on." He could not bring himself to protest or argue before the entity that he was absolutely sure to be a god. He knew better than to disobey Okina, aware of the sheer strength she possessed. Said thoughts were perceivable from the outside as well, and Okina's smirk widened in response to the subtle show of obedience. "Either way, you must be wondering about your current situation: this is my residence, and as I've said before, you have been here for almost a month now in my care. Needless to say the confrontation with the Hakurei Shrine Maiden resulted in your loss, and you were apparently knocked unconscious with a strong blow to your head. Normally, given the extent of my powers and the lacking damage to your brain, you should have awakened much sooner from your coma, especially since I had my servants tend to you for days on end augmenting your life force. However, it seems like some other factor in your fight heavily affected and destabilized your mental energy, and the shock of this prolonged your time unconscious immensely despite the fact that you're perfectly healthy. In other words, the biggest cause for your coma is psychological, but it wasn't induced by you in particular."

That line of logic had ended as though even he could comprehend the conclusion, but he was unable to see the precise meaning behind her words. As far as he could tell, a culprit was involved in his coma, but even the fact that he had been under a coma was shocking enough for his weary self, and his mind busied itself processing that fact first and foremost. "You look confused," she lightly remarked, as if intending to taunt him for his ignorance; he himself was instead surprised that he apparently was showing himself as confused as he was when he did not really notice the subtle changes to his features. "It would seem, then, that the person you work for has been keeping some secrets from you. That is, if you work for them to begin with. Let's make that my first question to you: are you part of the recent group of human Nen-users?" Okina's smile ceased to be, and her expression had darkened through a stern frown accompanied by narrowed orange eyes. "Incidentally, if you fail to give me an honest answer, your life will be in danger. After all, it isn't like I'm obligated to keep you alive. If anything, as an enemy of mine, I had many reasons to see to it your life was forfeit the moment the shrine maiden handed me to you. With that in mind, you have been warned, so answer me, human villager! Did you consciously decide to join that group of Nen-users?"

Her stance was chilling, and her booming voice commanded power. It overwhelmed him to take the brunt of her genuine threats, each of them numbered with coldness unbecoming of a human being. Moments after the question itself was voiced, Okina was met with a reluctant nod from the trembling man who positioned his hands back as if to prepare an escape by supporting his weight when he were to stand up. Regardless, Okina herself knew that he would not truly act upon his instinct to run, as he was not foolish enough to risk his death that way. "Then this group is not just an assortment of the mastermind's puppets, but a gathering of foolish people who consciously decided to join, instead. I can't really decide whether to be disappointed, or glad that my assumption was correct. But enough of that; I've still much to ask of you. If you decided to join of your own volition, was it only the group's leader who knew Nen beforehand?"

He nodded, though he could only faintly envision mental images of the recollections he could hardly think through deeply. "So there is only one true infiltrator in the Human Village. Well, it was only to be expected: if there are any others, they must be scattered in other locations." Okina glanced towards some of the doors in her surroundings, as if trying to guess where the perpetrator could possibly be. When her gaze drifted back to the man, she saw that he trembled, almost unable to even support himself, and his gaze was blank, as though unfocused. He only noticed that she was staring so intently after a moment, and tilted his head back as though fearful of Okina's next course of action. For reasons unknown to the man, she huffed, and said, "If I push you much further, I can't guarantee that you'll be responding to me in a lucid state. With that in mind, I'll ask you only this before I stop: did you choose to go to the Hakurei Shrine the day you faced the shrine maiden?"

"Huh...?" Memories raced through his mind in search of a quick answer, if only to appease Okina's mood. He could not possibly imagine what she would do to him were he answering dishonestly, and he did not truly want to think of the prospect. Though, as much as he tried to remember when he was at the Hakurei Shrine, he found that those recollections were more faint than even those of past events. Images flashed like a dream, though he knew that he had been defeated by the Hakurei shrine maiden because of his coma: he had stepped onto the shrine grounds, but why was that, again...? For what reason did he move? He tried to remember events directly before his trek to the shrine, but drew a blank: it was as though there was a gap between his recent memories of the shrine and back at the very beginning of the incident, in which nothing that he could remember had been accomplished.

"Well...?" Okina crossed her arms, her glare indicating nothing more than pure impatience. It appeared he had taken more than one minute simply to think, and that was souring the disposition he so wanted to appease. "Did you or did you not come to the Hakurei Shrine of your own will?" The answer should have been obvious, as far as he knew: if he had gone to the shrine, he had to have chosen to go himself. However, he could not recall the motive behind his actions; he could not recall thinking at all. The few words he did say to the mysterious youkai that had stood in his way felt as though uncharacteristic of himself, and out-of-place with his thoughts, though in line with his actions. Even so, he could remember most of the conversation he had, and none of the youkai's words had come to mind. Even the shrine maiden's, he could not recall, and he could not see why he would have been fighting her to begin with.

"I don't know..." he muttered, hesitant, and mostly scared; genuine fear lurking within his stomach, twisting and turning it time and time over. He directed his gaze downwards, unwilling to take in whatever expression Okina was wearing, thinking it would not be what he wanted to see as the last moments of his life. Varying past memories occurred to him, positive ones that he would never have forgotten: the time he had spent with his family and friends, the irreplaceable memories of a precarious, uneventful, though peaceful life, in which he foolishly yearned for more than what had already been given to him. In his mind, he was ready to do anything to experience that joy once more, to replace the beads of cold sweat coursing down his face with tears of joy from reuniting with the people he knew and loved and staying put in the village, just as it should have been for a mere, ordinary human.

"'I don't know', you say?" Okina's words seemed to almost ring in his ears, representing an alarm that brought him back to the reality of the dangers of the present situation. "I was hoping you could give me a clear no and dispel my doubts, but I suppose this is as honest as you can be. Though, I do remember telling you not to speak any further if it strained you?" He flinched, overwhelmed by the speed of his beating heart. However, as if in unison with it, an elegant chuckle resounded through the area, piquing his curiosity and garnering the full extent of his confusion. "I was only joking with you, of course." Unable to stop himself from the action, he finally directed his gaze back to Okina's amused expression, much to his disbelief. Seeing Okina wink his way, he grimaced in confusion. "You're the one who knows best of your own condition, after all: if you think you can speak, so be it; the responsibility for that is yours only."

He was speechless; he almost felt cheated. Meanwhile, Okina was smirking, triumphantly so. "In any case, your uncertain answer isn't as unreliable as it may seem. Though, let us not overwhelm you any further: you may have just awakened, but you do still need your rest. While I may have seemed overly eager to speak with you, this was more of a test than anything; a test of your will to cooperate with me." Anticipating the man's trembling, Okina shook her head. "Worry not, for you've passed with flying colours. From now on, you won't need to fear your death or consider me an enemy, since I harbour no ill will towards you, as well. As for your circumstances, however, you will have to stay here indefinitely." The man's eyes then widened in pure shock, the weight of the realization almost forcing his torso back to the makeshift ground. "All of your needs will be tended to by my servants, and they may move you to differing locations depending on the situation, but you will not return to your home in Gensokyo any time soon; there is no room for negotiation here, and no exceptions. In the event you have urgent business with me, you may have one of these two call upon me..." She pointed to Satono and Mai, whose smiles remained as though plastered to their faces. "Though I will visit you periodically, so I don't think the need will ever arise. Additionally, while you are free to explore this location, you may only do so in the company of my servants, and they will be the ones to outline which areas are off-limits, and which are not."

Seeing the thinnest scowl surge from the man's faint anger, Okina's smirk soured in its edge, and she eyed the man threateningly. "The doors in my residence will not open to you even if you do try to escape, so I'd advise you not to waste the effort and accept your fate. This is for your own good, as well: the Human Village is not truthfully safe, especially if your leader finds that you have been caught by me. If I gave you the freedom you desire, it would put us both at a disadvantage. Though, this is a conversation for another day. Well, try not to be too depressed: you'll be returned to your home eventually so it might even be more accurate to see this is as protective custody. If even then, you're unsatisfied, take this as the price you had to pay for your reckless actions against Gensokyo and repent to your leisure. You have plenty of hours to do so, after all."

With that, Okina turned around, and mercilessly walked away from the puny man, who could not voice even a single complaint. She gestured the servants that were following her towards the man, and they immediately left her line of sight. _Well, it would only be natural for him not to be so accepting of my terms: for all intents and purposes, he is being treated like no more than a prisoner. Still, there is no better way to know about Nen and the mastermind than this; I'm sure Yukari brought him to me with that in mind as well._ She thought back to the man, and his response to her last question, reluctant and fearful, conveyed through a shaking voice. _He must've thought he was taking a risk by saying anything other than yes and no, but 'I don't know' is just as valid, in that case. Would not anyone who makes a voluntary choice in a clear state of mind answer with anything other than a yes? He would not dare lie in my presence, and if he could answer the other questions clearly, he could answer this one, as well. So, it should be safe to assume that the answer is actually no, and that something beyond his control dictated his actions._

 _We've been conjecturing that the mastermind has been taking hold of these people because of the distinct Nen presence in their bodies, but even after this man was healed, Nen remained in him, and Yukari has failed without a doubt to bring the mastermind for questioning. Combined with the fact that Nen is a power not belonging solely to this elusive foreigner, and knowing even that this man is from the Human Village, it would only be natural to think this Nen is from the mastermind regardless, and the mastermind, whose knowledge on Nen goes without saying, had likely let this man be knocked unconscious by Reimu on purpose; all so that we could conclude there was no possession to begin with. Without a doubt, however, the Nen within that man is essentially part of him now, and there are no traces of power from Gensokyo: it could be said that he has smoothly transitioned to an alien entity. Though, the instability in his mental energy indicated an incredible pressure in his will, one strong enough to override his wishes, and even his identity, beyond a simple conversion of energies: the mastermind likely dispelled his control of the man just before Reimu dealt the final blow, and this sudden release further strained his body to the point he was forced into a long coma, while the Nen in him had been there before even the mastermind's possession. As such, he would serve as a decoy because he's a villager wielding Nen, and he could be silenced just as easily from the side effect of these powers of manipulation or possession._

Feeling as though she had the upper hand against the mastermind, Okina smirked slyly and knowingly. _It was a good plan, admittedly enough. Had it not been for my powers, the mastermind could have fooled even Yukari, at least temporarily. I'm not so easy a target, however, since I can see all that is hidden._

Unable to contain her feelings of preemptive victory, Okina snickered as she traversed her realm, intending to busy herself with other matters. _Try all you might, but you can't possibly win this battle for Gensokyo, foreign mastermind. Your opponents are far beyond your level, after all._

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

 **"Five minutes remain..."**

At that point, Reimu and Marisa were standing while leaning on a wall next to each other, while Hisoka was standing only a few meters away from them, where he had originally been sat at. For once, his gaze was not on them, but on the closed passages that the applicants could come from. Reimu and Marisa were just as focused on those doors, scowls evident on their normally casual features. Reimu tapped her foot impatiently, and Marisa fiddled with her weapon as though to ease her anxiety. "What's taking them so long, anyway?" Reimu finally snapped, unable to take the tense silence and her own anger any longer. "It's just a bunch of traps in a tower! If they can get this far into the Hunter Exam, it shouldn't be that hard to get through something like that!"

"I thought at least Killua or Kurapika would get here pretty early on, but they're not here, either," Marisa said, her voice belying disappointment and concern simultaneously, as she grasped her miniature furnace harder. "Hope they're alright..."

"With so many people coming in groups, they're probably in a group, too," Reimu added bitterly, "and it's not like they're defenseless if they came this far! How are they being stopped by a tower of all things?!"

"That better be one hell of a tower," Marisa said, "'cause I'm starting to get annoyed at how much they're worrying me. I mean, there's only five minutes left; how are they gonna arrive under that kinda time?"

 **"Three minutes remain..."**

"It's down to three minutes already?" Marisa questioned incredulously, glancing at every corner of the room's ceiling in a futile attempt to locate the inconvenient voice's source. "Why's time only fast when we don't want it to be?"

"Marisa, look!" Reimu pointed to her left, where a wall could be seen rising from its position and giving way to a passing applicant. "They're **—** " However, when she heard a weak, strained chuckle originated from a limp young man slowly walking past the passage, Reimu quickly retracted her hand, which trembled with fury. "Ugh, this tower is Hell!"

The young man fell face-first to the ground, and moved no longer from then on. While Reimu was thinly frowning, internally pitying the casualties of the exam, three other applicants seemed to be noting on the applicant's death as they leered the corpse's way. Marisa, who had been directed to the sight by Reimu, noted the three siblings and their number tags which just as aptly implied they were related enough to appear at the same time on the exam site; beyond the fact that the three would chat loudly in their own corner of the room. "Looks like the guy died," Marisa commented somberly, "and less than half of the applicants that were on the tower are here right now. What if Gon and the others got into something really dangerous with those traps?"

"Damn it, if they were that weak, they shouldn't have decided to take the exam in the first place!" Reimu exclaimed, attracting varying glances from the other applicants from the raw fury in her voice. "Didn't they know they could die in here?!"

"And they were doing so well with the exam, too," Marisa said, resigning to pocketing her weapon again, as if their fate were already sealed. "Just why the hell did they have to struggle against this damn tower?!"

 **"One minute remains..."**

"They should have just **—** Wait!" Reimu and Marisa tensed upon noticing a passage on the opposite end of their position slowly open at the same time, and grimaced as they battled their own anticipations. However, spotting shades of green, blue and white from the shadows of the dark tunnel, their eyes widened in shock, as though regarding a miracle.

 **"Kurapika, applicant number four hundred and five, is the twentieth to pass the Third Phase."**

"You!" Reimu and Marisa charged at the three they could see with scowls of pure fury. Meanwhile, Gon, Kurapika and Killua were incredulously stepping back due to the intensity in their stances, wide eyes expressing their confusion and surprise regarding the situation.

 **"Killua, applicant number one hundred and one, is the twenty first to pass the Third Phase."**

"What the heck?!" Killua jumped aside immediately after voicing the full extent of his surprise and displeasure, and squarely avoided being less than arm's length away from Reimu and Marisa's intimidating glares.

 **"Gon, applicant number four hundred and seven, is the twenty third to pass the Third Phase."**

Meanwhile, Kurapika had taken the full brunt of their charge, and stepped back apprehensively. "Reimu, Marisa...?! Just why exactly do you look so angry at us...?!" Kurapika questioned, blinking rapidly as if doubting his eyes.

"You're late!" Reimu and Marisa shouted in unison, intensely enough they seemed to be growling the words out.

"Do you have any idea how long we had to wait for you? We've been here for more than seventy hours!" Reimu protested indignantly, crossing her arms.

Gon, who was by Kurapika's side, sheepishly scratched his head as he weakly chuckled. "Sorry..."

"Geez, what's with the commotion over there...?" Then, as a result of his careless inquiry, Reimu and Marisa set their piercing sights on Leorio, who they could faintly see from behind Killua, Gon and Kurapika. He seemed to be accompanied by another applicant they were unfamiliar with, but that did not faze them.

"It's 'cause you're all freakin' slow!" Marisa shot back, her voice fierce in comparison to Leorio's. "Who actually makes it at literally the last minute, anyway?!"

 **"Leorio, applicant number four hundred and six, is the twenty fourth to pass the Third Phase."**

"Wha **—** Marisa?!" Leorio quickened his pace, leaving the man behind. When he saw Reimu and Marisa standing precisely in front of Gon and Kurapika, he blinked, unsure of how to take the situation due to their demeanors. "You two! You're safe!" He settled on a smile, albeit a small one, genuine in its expression of relief but inappropriate in light of Reimu and Marisa's death glares.

"And you four look like a mess!" Reimu countered pointing in their general direction. In fact, as though they had laid on dirt, their clothes were dirtied in spots, and their hands trembled from weakness seemingly caused by fatigue. She could hear afterwards the announcement of the applicant that was apparently on the same team as the applicants she did know, and glanced his way. The short man stepped away from the group quickly in reaction to the sudden attention, and Reimu decided to shrug that off due to her current concerns. "Just what happened to make you be so late getting down from a tower of all things?!"

"It's a long story," Kurapika awkwardly and tentatively uttered, though his low voice displayed an equal amount of weariness to calm Reimu and Marisa's anger, replacing it with slight curiosity. "But, to put it simply, we had to fifty hours taken from us and were almost going to fail the exam, if not for Gon."

"So you got some kinda penalty?" Marisa asked, only to nod as if satisfied with Kurapika's answer, though she frowned bitterly. "Now it's startin' to make sense why you got here so late. How'd you make it, then?"

"Just when we were getting stumped over a fork on the road, Gon got one of his crazy ideas and saved our hides," Leorio proudly summarized, as though Gon's feat were his own.

"I only thought it'd be possible for us to break the wall to the easy path since I saw those weapons making a hole in the wall really easily," Gon humbly explained, contrasting with the wholehearted smiles of Kurapika and Leorio, and even Killua's wry smile.

 **"Time's up! The Third Phase of the exam is now over! Twenty seven applicants have passed."**

Reimu ultimately sighed hearing that announcement, and stated as if tired, "Well, at least you did end up passing, so you didn't disappoint on that end."

"Still, try not to give us heart attacks the next time you go through a phase by yourselves," Marisa added with a weak smile, the most she could manage with her relief and emotional fatigue similar to Reimu's.

Kurapika calmly nodded, mirroring Marisa's wry smile. "I'll see what I can do about that," he said, "and I also apologize for making you worry. It wasn't our intention, as I'm sure you know."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize," Leorio interjected in a saddened fashion. He had at first cast his gaze to the floor, but he was quick to stare intently at Reimu and Marisa in his determination to be straightforward, though his fisted hands trembled in mixture of apprehension and anger. "I keep ragging on you for being reckless, but I'm the one who keeps getting into trouble. Pathetic, right? If it weren't for me, we wouldn't have had fifty hours taken."

"We're not mad at you for that, Leorio," Gon effortlessly reassured, expressing only honesty in his smile as he tugged at Leorio's sleeve. "Besides, we passed anyway, so that's all that matters."

"If you haven't noticed, the applicants are all leaving the tower right now," Killua said from the side, gesturing for the five to look towards the exit with only his face. "Shouldn't we be following them?"

Reimu and Marisa proceeded to turn around, only to note the small passage they had not seen for over seventy hours. "You're right," Reimu said, blinking in slight awe at the sight of sunlight, unlike what they had been seeing for the past seventy two hours. "The exit's open again."

"Let's go, then!" Gon exclaimed before stepping forward with a grin, thrusting a fist forward in his excitement to move.

"You got it," Killua vacantly stated as he followed suit, leaving Reimu, Marisa, Leorio and Kurapika behind. The unknown applicant who had been near Leorio was long but gone, but Reimu and Marisa did not bother questioning his presence since they had been quick to assume it was only a temporary teammate in the phase.

Unbeknownst to them, however, said temporary teammate was peeking through the door, not quite able to hold back the curiosity he had been holding on Reimu and Marisa for quite a while. Tonpa noted Reimu and Marisa as the next two to leave, following Gon and Killua, while Leorio and Kurapika caught up with the two young women so as to continue chatting with them. No longer were the two sticking close to the most dangerous applicant of the whole exam, but were instead smiling conversationally towards the relatively sane group; just as Gon had told him was the case upon the single time he asked. Naturally, it was hard to believe. Were they cold-blooded killers, or incredibly dense magic-users? Unable to decide even when they were finally not with Hisoka, in a position where he could perhaps crush them, Tonpa had chosen to ignore the applicants, but now he questioned his own observational capabilities.

After all, Reimu and Marisa's previous anger had been nothing other than a pure display of concern for their fellow companions, and their resignation one of relief. For the briefest moment, the two eccentric magicians were nothing more than two ordinary women, just as capable of vulnerability as anyone. Noting that yet again in his mind, which repeated the scene almost to an annoying degree, Tonpa knew he had failed in his judgement, and acknowledged his small defeat within his annual journey to crush rookies, known by none of the opposing parties.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

Holy shit, that was probably the heaviest chapter in the story so far, as far as I'm concerned, though I can't be sure if it tops the prologue. Whatever the case, I did say I wasn't going to feature the rest of the second phase, and I meant it; the most I could have done with it was have Reimu and Marisa speak with the four main characters some more, but there wouldn't have been much to address then. As such, I skipped right over to the part where everybody's on an airship and Gon and Killua get challenged by Netero.

Oh, Netero. How does one even write Netero properly? I had to reflect a lot on his personality, because he's kind of unpredictable and hard to read as a person. However, I don't think he's thinking in a very complex manner when he's dealing with situations, based on what we see from his thoughts in the source material. It's more like what he projects outwardly makes it hard to discern what exactly he's thinking on the inside. He's the kind of character who has no actual reservations, and has a very whimsical, playful demeanour to top that off, though it's displayed in unorthodox ways. The way he messes around with things is kind of roundabout, as far as I can see? But he isn't malicious as a character, and more like a neutral center. As such, he's not the kind of character that you can easily write, but man, I did try by making use of his more blunt, but subtle self (if that makes sense). I felt like he did really good on the scene with Marisa, though I'll probably revise it after re-checking the Chimera Ant arc and more of the Hunter Exam arc.

Originally, I wasn't very sure if Netero would allow Marisa to spectate the Hunter Exam or not. However, the more I thought about it, the more I concluded he'd refuse for a variety of reasons, one of which being to stir Marisa up, and another being very clear in the scene I wrote to the point I don't need to say it. I didn't really think the scene would end the way it did, though: my original plan was to show Marisa talking to Netero, and then show Reimu talk with Leorio and Kurapika, potentially meeting Tonpa once and for all. What failed about this is that Reimu just wouldn't give a fuck about that when she can finally sleep, so I didn't manage to write the scene and decided to just keep the focus on Marisa, especially as showing off Reimu's side of the scene would involve some awkward time travelling. When it comes to the nightmare, though, my biggest doubt is whether the scene is too graphical for this website, considering my story's set as T ^^' (I tried toning it down a little but if it's still iffy, I'm really sorry!)

Additionally, the scene does not recount the prologue, as you must have been able to guess from the fact that Marisa was running instead of flying away (and then her other arm got broken, so you know). Traumatic situations tend to stick in dreams. I, for one, tend to dream about my worst moments from time to time, even when I don't care about them anymore, and I can usually remember a few parts afterwards. In Marisa's case, well, I had a lot of plans for the following scene, but the thing that stuck with me was the fact that she was gonna talk to Killua. Why? Because he was the most likely to be conveniently awake early. I got a little inspired by the fact that the manga showed him already awake before the announcement of the applicants' arrival to Trick Tower, albeit that's as late as 9 AM. Stiiiill, it definitely can be possible for Killua to be awake then so I kinda took advantage of that! I thought of Killua being more displeased or depressed, but I found that kind of unrealistic and contradictory to the source material, so I gave up on the idea: sure, he didn't like Netero's game, but he was getting along fine with everyone the next day, and I think that's what would normally happen in a situation like that. But either way, I was gonna have Marisa confess her dream and everything and try to cheer him up, but blegh. It's not in accordance with both series.

I felt like this way was more realistic for the both of them, instead. As in, Marisa and Killua being too awkward to express themselves emotionally in a proper manner, hahaha: Killua's as you know he is, and then there's Marisa, who seems to be portrayed mostly as unreliable when it comes reading the mood in terms of emotions; even Reimu is portrayed as more compassionate. Marisa cares about people, but she's not all that good at telling them what they wanna hear; Akyuu also describes her this way. So, I figured these two are too insensitive and practical to 1. dwell on their problems and mope about them 2. have a heart-to-heart about these problems 3. notice the stuff on their minds is actually important. In the end, though, things progressed regardless of how awkward these two are, which is kinda amazing. This scene makes a lot of changes that are small when it comes to the plot, but have a bunch of implications characterization-wise, so I'm rather happy about it. Marisa and Killua are the two hardest characters to write in the whole story, so I hope I did them justice, as well!

Speaking of, Marisa and spellcards; she absolutely loves spellcards. She has a book dedicated to spellcards: if there is one thing Marisa adores, it's spellcard duels. I liked exploring that side of her, for a change, since it felt like a more passionate side in Marisa's personality. It isn't often that Marisa shows off her more hardworking and invested facets, so it's definitely worthwhile to write for me. Either way, Trick Tower! I thankfully didn't have to research it as much, since Reimu and Marisa just flew down to the exit. I feel like Reimu and Marisa have been flying to solve their problems far too much, but that was honestly what I'd been picturing since day one of planning the story out: I saw the Hunter Exam arc, and thought that anyone who could fly would immediately ace all the phases, so Reimu popped to mind. Now it's gotten kind of predictable, but then again, if I'd made up a path just for Reimu and Marisa, it wouldn't have been as fun as you'd think, since it would be nothing but an OC fest, and I'll be dealing with enough of those already. It'd just be them passing the phase real fast and real good, too, even when taking the passages fair and square; it would end up being meaningless.

On the other hand, I felt like it'd be more fun if Reimu and Marisa got first and had to be stuck waiting around with Hisoka, precisely the guy they wanted to avoid lol. If you notice, the relationships Reimu and Marisa have with the Hunter x Hunter characters have just been suffering a few slight changes, likely out of familiarity: I say 'likely' because this is something that's just been happening without me really making it that way; it just flows onto my keyboard naturally. Hisoka's attitude towards Reimu, too, is starting to become clearer and clearer with each scene, as he couldn't talk much to her directly in the chapters before 10. I was planning on having a sort of montage of all the stuff Reimu and Marisa did with Hisoka in the days they spent there, but I decided it wasn't really worth it because the moments themselves would have been too short. Besides, they wouldn't always be talking and spending time together. Another plan I had was to make it so they would start talking to Hanzo, but nope, couldn't make it. They just have no reason to speak to him, no matter how I spin the narrative. And really, I would totally wanna have scenes of Reimu and Marisa interacting with all sorts of characters like Pokkle, Tonpa or even Gittarackur, but I haven't had the opportunity.

Particularly Tonpa, because Tonpa's making a point to avoid Reimu and Marisa. I also thought about writing a scene with Tonpa questioning why the hell the four are hanging out with Reimu and Marisa, but the scene itself would be so short and be resumed with Gon saying something along the lines of 'Oh they're actually pretty cool people so you were wrong all along' to the point where I scrapped the idea thinking it would be kinda pointless. After all, Tonpa would still have no reason to talk to them, as he prefers to avoid trouble. Though, I do think he would at least keep his eye on Reimu and Marisa, if only just in case they could affect him in any way. In that sense, I thought it was great to bring him back once more for the ending, so there would be something better to end on than 'and then Reimu and Marisa were cool with things again', especially because nobody would see Tonpa coming, hahaha.

Though, for a long while, I didn't make the ending scene be with Tonpa because I wasn't sure how to do it, but my mind kept nagging me about how much more thoughtful a note he'd end the chapter on, mostly because of the way he changes his mind about Reimu and Marisa: as in, he can tell they're just normal people, but as if it had been his loss not figuring this out earlier, he just won't get involved with them for that reason alone. I think Tonpa's a shady and sly guy, but I simultaneously feel that, as basically his life purpose, Tonpa has standards in his rookie crushing business, at least for himself rather than the circumstances; or so goes my overthinking on this character everyone hilariously memes about being super strong all along. I sure would love reading stories with Tonpa! Still, the main point was to reflect on Reimu and Marisa more than on Tonpa himself.

Anyway! There was a Lippo scene stuck in the middle of the Trick Tower part. It wasn't gonna be there at first, but I decided it should be because it gives more weight to the way Reimu and Marisa passed the exam. Besides, it IS his fault for just telling them all they need to do is get to the bottom alive. As for Lippo himself, I had to go off of the 1999 anime and some speculation, because the manga didn't feature all that much of him. Still, from the little I could see, I thought he would be more accepting of Reimu and Marisa's endeavours as a path of their own, apart from the one he himself had set aside for the applicants. Kinda sad he didn't get to do much in Hunter x Hunter.

There was also that Okina scene. Hot damn, that Okina scene. If Marisa's part was heavy, that scene tops it in varying levels that I just can't even **—** It wasn't even my intention, though. I don't tend to plan out my darkest parts; they just sort of happen after realizing that they're kind of freaking dark. I stressed on picturing the exact perspective of the man, but thought it would be just as cool to then transition back to a more neutral perspective with the passing time Okina's around, only for the narration to take on Okina's perspective. I feel like it led to a huge contrast and ultimately stopped the scene from being too dramatic, since I don't want things to get very edgy. Furthermore, Okina herself needs to shine, so let's have her shine already! Though, the way she shone was a little, uh... You know! Though, more than the implications of the scene, I was troubled by just portraying her thought process at the end: talk about a text wall! I tried my best to condense it, but the more I'd condense it, the more confusing it'd become because it turns out this logic Okina concludes has like ten different layers to it and I'm not nearly as smart as Okina to lay them all out in this super clear manner and uuuuuugh I hope it was coherent! Anyway, to be continued? Just what exactly will result out of this protective custody? And what does Okina even mean with that? Hopefully you can look forward to the next chapter, where things may or may not happen!

 **Deleted dialogue:**

*deleted because I didn't think Marisa would actually ask this over something else*

Marisa: "You don't like me. What gives?"

Hisoka: "I do like you. I like you quite a bit, actually."

Marisa: "That's the one confession I never wanted to hear..."


	13. Chapter 12

**First Words:**

* * *

 **somemadao - Thank you! Yet again, I've taken more than I wanted to put this chapter out, hahaha... Regardless, I think Reimu tends to draw people to her because she imposes respect but also manages to be just human enough that you can see weakness, so she's got kind of the best of both worlds here depending on what she's doing. Though, she's also described as being feared by the weak, but that's likely just because she takes youkai down on sight and that's troublesome for those who are weak and want to mind their business. Since she treats everybody pretty fairly, without any sense of fear or respect, there's also always this indifferent feel to her, but that's her facing people, but in facing situations, Reimu's got this pretty dynamic range of anxiety, dejection, rage and joy that I also really like writing. In the previous chapter, Reimu was more secondary so she got more spotlight facing Hisoka, which I'd more or less planned as a comedic moment (rather, Hisoka being the one person to arrive first was almost like the punchline to their near-cheating), so I just went all out with Reimu giving him the cold shoulder, being bored, only for the horror of Hisoka's implications to sink in later on. I wondered for a bit if the reactions were accurate or if the topic was appropriate or not, but I think that Reimu shines in being that super hero-like character, while also being a normal woman so I kept it all in. I was also going to develop on Marisa here but it'd be a huge text wall so uh, thank you for reviewing, as always!**

 **MichelleBlitzGir - I think I could've added some fun banter to it by showing it, but it'd mostly be filler with how easily it's passed and how it doesn't contribute to the themes or characters enough, in the sense of progressing their relationship. Though, there was also the problem that the conflict of the chapter had already ended before the split mountain part, so I felt it'd soften the impact if I added anything else to it; so there are two reasons for it. Hopefully it wasn't that missed! Thank you for reviewing, again!**

 **JYsven - I localized them for convenience's sake, though I definitely considered just writing mini-hakkero. It boiled down mostly to wanting the tone of the story (one that doesn't even keep Japanese honorifics around) to be consistent and also wanting to make the terms recognizable at a more technical level, as in, for the people who don't know what ofuda are, I can just say paper charms and a mental image will at least pop to mind. I didn't do this with place names because the opposite would happen, as it would be harder to recognize the House of Eternity as opposed to Eientei, and since they're regarded as place names, Eientei would give out the same mental image. It'd also require me to call Gensokyo the Fantasy Land, so... Regardless, thank you very much for reviewing, yet again!**

Since the last chapter, this story got 8 favorites and 12 followers, all of which I'm, as always, grateful for! I keep getting concerned for my backlog because of what seems to be my latest average uploading break of three months (I'm so sorry), and that's more or less what I've been most focused on solving right now, beyond just trying to move on with the writing process. I also keep thinking about getting a beta reader since I'm so bad at proofreading but I don't have the courage to ask with my work ethic, hahaha...

Regardless, enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Hunting and Being Hunted in the Fourth Phase**

* * *

What had followed Reimu and Marisa's departure from Trick Tower was their first meeting with the examiner of the third phase, who explained the goal of the fourth phase to the remaining twenty six applicants. Reimu was the first to draw out the card indicating her target, and took to opening the seal on it with an easygoing smile: in her mind, beating up her target and taking their number tag was extremely simple and straightforward, which was exactly to her liking. Marisa's mood, on the other hand, was not as bright considering she only had one arm to steal a number tag away, but her curiosity had gotten the best out of her as she was raring to speak to Reimu about the phase and her target.

However, only after both were settled on a ship headed for the site of the fourth phase, Zevil Island, could Marisa finally find a chance to start a conversation. "So, who's your target?" Marisa promptly asked without any sort of introduction to the discussion, knowing Reimu was both familiar with the topic and entirely unfazed by the lack of politeness in Marisa's attitude. Reimu had been standing firmly on the ground, gazing at the sea in an absent-minded fashion, while Marisa floated with her broom near Leorio and Kurapika, who were seated against the edges of the ship. Hearing Marisa's question from his position, Leorio perked up and stared at Reimu expectantly, his frown apprehensive.

"I'm pretty sure it's that bald guy who keeps getting in my way," Reimu answered in a nonchalant fashion before turning to face Marisa, and consequentially Kurapika and Leorio. "At least, I remember the announcer saying his number was two hundred and ninety six back on the third phase, and that's what I got right here." Then, Reimu took the card with her target's number from within her right detached sleeve and raised it to Marisa's line of sight, while Leorio struggled to raise his face to get a better view. Once he took a glimpse of the numbers '296' on the card, Leorio breathed a sigh of relief and shrunk back to his normal sitting position, and Kurapika sneaked a questioning glance his way.

"You shouldn't show your target number so openly, Reimu," Kurapika interjected in a calm, low voice, intended to be heard only by the three people closest to him. "Your target may be watching you as you speak." While Leorio could not help but slowly nod before Kurapika's wise warning, the two were met with Reimu and Marisa blinking their way as though confused by the concern. Incidentally, Leorio and Kurapika's number tags were no longer visible over their clothing, but Reimu and Marisa's tags hung casually on their shirts.

"So what if he is?" Reimu asked in genuine wonder before storing the card and loosely brandishing her weapon. "It doesn't change the fact that I'll beat him up and take his tag."

"You two sure are worryin' a lot over a simple test like this one," Marisa commented in quick succession to her friend, gesturing casually her way with her free hand, "It'd make sense doubting my chances, but Reimu's? No way she's not passing this one."

Reimu shrugged as though acknowledging the obvious, smirking as she did so, unaware of Leorio's blank gaze on her. Meanwhile, Kurapika's gaze was still on Marisa, even without as much focus as normal of a conversation due to his pondering state. "It isn't as though I don't think she'll pass," Kurapika clarified, "but if she shows who her target is, she will clearly have a much harder time against him, since he's already been given the time to prepare for a showdown with her." Unlike Reimu, he glanced briefly at the her target, noting his crossed legs while sitting by an edge, struggling to keep a calm frown through shut eyes; clearly, he'd heard.

"Well, I already showed it off, so there's no use in thinking about it now," Reimu said, now waving a careless hand around to dismiss the topic. "If he tries any trick against me, I'll just handle it then and there."

"I sure wish I could think like you right now," Leorio commented, looking down on the floor as if in dejection. "You're about to go on an all-out battle against all these other applicants, and you're as confident as can be. Must be nice being some super-powered flying witch." His eyes narrowed further then, the lack of emotion in them but bitterness staggering if not for the fact none of the people involved in the conversation were staring at him in particular.

Marisa, counting as an exception, smiled as though amused, leaning forward slightly to get closer to his eye level. "Sure is," Marisa said before rising back to glance at Kurapika and Leorio in general, noting their lack of a tag. "By the way, what are your targets? It's not us, is it?"

"Why're you asking? Is your target any of us?" Leorio snapped exactly as he quickly turned to Marisa, eyes wide with what could be fear, or simple anxiety.

"Nope. I don't even know who it is," Marisa answered, "Besides, now that everybody's hidden their tags, I can't check who's number eighty two anymore."

"Number eighty two, huh..." Leorio hummed pensively while scanning for any other applicant who had kept their tag visibly on them, but the number was almost null. "Can't say I know who that is, either. Welp, I can at least tell you it isn't me, so we're all good!" He managed a smile then, and the tension in his shoulders faded from the relief of facing a harmless Reimu and Marisa.

"It isn't me, either," Kurapika said from the side, "but considering you two are numbers seventy six and seventy seven respectively, number eighty two must have entered the exam site at around the time you did. If you try to recall the people who were with you on the same day you arrived, you might have an idea as to who could potentially be number eighty two."

"The people who were there on the day we arrived, huh..." Reimu muttered, only to grimace. "I'd come back home on the same day I arrived, so I don't know about when the other applicants entered the exam site at all. Sorry, Marisa."

"We saw you come back to the site through that door before the exam started," Leorio said, gesticulating in a way that implied he was trying to form a rectangular shape, similar to the door he described simply due to his own awe of its existence. His gaze was unfocused, as if he could see the scene he was reminiscing just in front of him. "Since that was around the time we were getting introduced to Hisoka, we were looking in that direction and all, and I remember thinking you three were nothing but danger."

"We were the ones actually talkin' to Hisoka, though," Marisa pointed out, now frowning in confusion, "Since when did you get introduced?"

"Well, there's this shady guy who's taken the exam too many times for his own good," Leorio explained while glancing to the sides in hopes of inconspicuously spotting the person he was speaking of, and he succeeded at noticing far away from the big group. Regardless, his voice was low as he spoke: "And since we didn't know he was a horrible guy at first, we got him to give us a rundown of the applicants who've tried taking the exam last year. Hisoka apparently got disqualified from last year's exam for killing an examiner he didn't like, so that guy was telling us to get away from him and you because you were probably just as dangerous."

"Oh, so it was some random guy who started spreading our infamy?" Reimu questioned with fast blinks, unable to even think of someone to accuse of being the culprit on the fly.

"I told you Hisoka killed an examiner and that's what you're reacting to?!" Leorio countered before his eyes widened further in shock, seeing as he was certainly loud enough Hisoka had heard him. He suppressed the urge to shudder and stared straight towards Reimu, who tilted her head to the side from faint confusion.

"That's Reimu for ya," Marisa remarked, and rolled her eyes thinking of the topic at hand. "Then again, it'd be weirder if knowing Hisoka murdered a guy was actually shocking to us."

"Besides, I was almost going to do something like that to an examiner, too," Reimu said, "so it's not like I should be the one complaining."

"W-when you put it that way..." Leorio muttered gruffly, grimacing in light of the contrast between Reimu's appearance and her assertive attitude, "You two are pretty hardcore."

"I'm here on serious business," Reimu claimed while partially placing a hand over her chest area. "Of course I'm going to be hardcore."

"Still, people who arrived on the same day we did..." Marisa pondered while trying to recognize all applicants on the ship. While many would spur memories from the third phase, where she could last see them and perhaps remember the number tag associated with the voice that announced their presence in the tower's base, only two near the center of the ship would seemingly draw her attention. "I actually went out to eat after Reimu left, so I wasn't keepin' track of the people. The most I ended up noticing when I was there was that I recognized two people from the preliminaries."

"From the preliminaries?"

"You don't remember the first preliminary? The other two people who passed also made it to the exam site," Marisa said to Reimu, who hummed passively, showing little true interest. However, she did finally decide to look through the ship, and did not react to anyone's presence in particular.

"If they were there the same day you arrived or the next, there's a good chance that one of them could be number eighty two," Kurapika added, and Marisa nodded slowly processing the fact.

"Well, even if you don't remember, we can always gather three other tags and call it a day, too," Reimu offered meanwhile, seeing Marisa's thoughtfulness as needless confusion from her part.

"Isn't this phase gonna be too dangerous for Marisa, though? The other phases didn't involve direct fighting, but this one does." Leorio eyed Marisa worryingly, his frown thin as he focused specifically on the cast that was still not healed. Considering almost a week had passed since then, he already started to assume the fracture was either recent, or especially bad.

"Reimu's gonna do most of the dirty work, so it'll be fine," Marisa dismissively said, leaning back slightly as if to cut off Leorio's staring without pointing it out, and Leorio averted his gaze then, his expression intact regardless.

"It's actually better for me if Marisa can pass at this point," Reimu answered Leorio with a small smile, "She's been a pretty convenient time-killer and she's never busy enough not to think up plans for me. Besides, who knows what sort of things she'll start doing while I'm not watching out for her?"

"Yeesh, I'm not a kid, you know?"

"Well, it'd be great if the two of you could also pass, but I'm just hoping you don't get way in over your head and hurt yourselves," Leorio as a sour warning, and now he was even looking towards Reimu, whose incredibly unguarded stance practically explained the reasoning behind his concern without any words.

"Didn't ya admit you were the only one of us who'd get into trouble here? You're just worryin' too much," Marisa said despite that, scowling, annoyed while remembering more than one time she had received that kind of worry.

Leorio clicked his tongue. "Well, sorry for caring, then!" he retorted, though the intensity in his exclamation was a bit more lacking than expected, and he cast his gaze to the horizon as if pensive. Marisa stared at that unaware, while Reimu scratched the back of her head thinking back on the third phase.

"What he means to say is that he's worried regardless of his past judgements of you," Kurapika said, filling the silence, "as one would normally be. The fact that you're capable does not change your injured condition."

"Nobody said I wouldn't be careful," Marisa said bitterly, perhaps more so than she was planning on being before when she noticed she might have spoken without consideration for Leorio's feelings. She peered into his current flustered grimace, seeing him look aside, and mimicked that expression unknowingly. "But, well, thanks anyway, I guess."

"You're welcome," Leorio mechanically responded, as though to spite Marisa but without the motivation to follow through. "Also, don't you have to go to the doctor for any check-ups on that arm?"

"I already went before Phase Three," Marisa responded, "It's not that hard gettin' there when Okina's place is full of shortcuts."

"Must sure be nice being friends with a super-powered door witch," Leorio remarked.

"Sure is," Marisa answered. "What, you jealous?"

"Damn straight I'm jealous! If I'm not gonna be able to use stupidly convenient magic, you can at least let me be jealous about it!" By that point, Marisa and Leorio glared into each other's eyes, unrelenting in their lighthearted, albeit somewhat confused animosity. Reimu and Kurapika blankly observed the two, only to glance each other's way as a means to acknowledge the situation.

"Yo." Reimu and Kurapika were the first ones to turn towards the source of the new, but familiar voice, and were simultaneously unsurprised to note Killua's presence nearby. With both of his hands on the back of his head, he casually watched the bickering occurring between Marisa and Leorio with curious eyes, but he was notably focused on Marisa. "What're you being all rowdy about?" he half-heartedly questioned, as though not especially interested in the answer.

Marisa and Leorio faced Killua in a mix between surprise and curiosity, and they noticed the number tag resting on his T-shirt. "Oh, Killua! I was so busy telling Marisa off I almost didn't notice you there," Leorio said as he exchanged glares with Marisa again. "But, huh, looks like you're showing off your number tag. Guess you're just as confident about this as Reimu and Marisa."

"Well, this is nothing special to me," Killua dismissively answered, "By the way, do you know who number two hundred and one is? That's my target, but I didn't bother memorizing everyone's tags."

"Number two hundred and one? No clue," Leorio immediately said, only to direct his gaze to Kurapika, Reimu and Marisa.

"I can't say I know who that is, either," Kurapika said.

Killua pointed to Reimu and Marisa, who stared at him curiously. "What about you two? You know anything?"

"Actually, I think I remember somebody whose tag was a hundred and ninety nine," Marisa said, resting her chin on her hand as she recalled that time, "Back at the tower, there were these three siblings checking on the dead applicant, and they got in the exam site at the same time. One of them's probably got that tag."

"So one of those three might be my target?"

"Yup," Marisa answered, smiling vacantly, "Might be worth getting to them first."

"Cool, thanks," Killua said, glancing over the group again but not bothering to voice his impression of them, "What about you, though? You know who your targets are?"

"Not if you don't know who number eighty two is."

"I said I didn't bother memorizing everybody's tag," Killua retorted, "so there's no way I'd know who's eighty two."

"Guess I should've expected that one," Marisa said with a shrug.

"I got the bald guy, if you're that curious about my target," Reimu said, glancing her target's way faintly.

Killua followed that gaze just as briefly, and smirked deviously. "The guy who interrupted you on the second phase? If you were anyone else, I'd say you're unlucky, but you probably want your revenge."

"Of course!"

Killua then looked towards Leorio and Kurapika, as if urging them to respond, but the silence that the two presented to Killua left him to frown. "You wanna know my target? No offense, but I can't just go around telling."

"I have to agree with Leorio on this one," Kurapika said. "You three may be confident in exposing your targets, but I would rather hold as many advantages as possible. If I were to tell the number, the target could hear it."

Killua shrugged. "Whatever," he said, "Not like I don't get where you're coming from, anyway. In Reimu's case, the bald guy's probably heard her say he's her target, so she's only made it harder for herself by telling me."

"I already told my target to the others when you weren't here," Reimu said, "so nothing's actually changed. I'll just beat him up and get it over with."

"By the way, how's Gon doing?" Leorio asked, and Killua immediately turned to him with a curious look. "I thought you'd stick around him, but if you're not there, he's probably alone right now. With a phase like this, I really hope he comes out alright..."

"Oh, Gon? He's right over there." Killua motioned to his right, where the other three could spot a small figure leaning against the edges of the ship. The green clothing was a clear indicator that it was Gon, and his gaze seemed almost unfocused, but he was simultaneously smiling. "I figured he needed some time on his own to think over this phase, so I just left him there."

Feeling the intensity of a multitude of gazes, however, Gon raised his head to the source and waved their way with a smile weaker than they had expected. The others (with the exception of Kurapika) waved back, but decided not to call out to him in any way as he had not stood up on his own to face them. "He does seem more absent-minded than usual," Kurapika commented. "Is it because of his target?"

"Something like that," Killua said, his smile wry. "I wouldn't bother him if I were you. It's not like he's making any plans, but he could use some alone time."

"I wanted to ask who his target is, but looks like I'll have to give up on that," Marisa uttered somewhat sourly, hunching forward on her broom.

"Is it a really strong guy?" Leorio questioned, scowling the more he processed the implications of his own doubts. His foot was tapping as he spoke: "Just how terrifying are we talking about here? Because depending on your answer, I might not leave Gon alone after all. If there's anyone who should be passing this exam, it's Gon!"

"I just told you not to bother him, remember?" Killua snapped, staring down at Leorio with blank eyes before crossing his arms. "Also, there's no way Gon would actually want you helping him out. He's looking forward to stealing the tag on his own."

Leorio glanced at Gon before deciding to keep his head low in order to suppress his urge to act upon his reflex of helping Gon against his own wishes. Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa smiled almost as if sympathetically, as they, too, were looking forward to the next phase. Kurapika's eyes were closed, and he seemed pensive perhaps so as to conceal his own concern, while Killua, Reimu and Marisa struck a new conversation to fill the remaining hour left until their arrival to Zevil Island.

Less than midway through the conversation, Leorio and Kurapika ultimately joined them, leading the five to have a leisurely time without concerns pertaining targets or the phase itself. While they remained slightly worried for Gon, he was with them by the time the applicants were called to gather near the ship's exit when they had finally arrived, and his mood was as usual.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

"Now, you will have to leave for the exam site based on the time spent on the third phase, with the fastest departing first!" At that point, all remaining twenty six applicants had gathered near the ship's exit, overlooked by the young woman speaking to them presently. Her posture was upright and her polite smile bright, but the pleasant mood she had intended to project onto the area was wasted with the tension arising from most. A few of the applicants stood as exceptions, either confident or excited for what was to come. Gon's expression seemed to almost mirror Reimu's, and they were lined up side by side, while Marisa and Killua watched that with some curiosity, their stances remarkably casual. Kurapika and Leorio were paying great attention to the words of the ship's guide, Khara, but they were inwardly relieved to see Gon in high spirits. "In other words, I will have each of you leave this ship alone two minutes after the previous applicant! The phase's time limit is exactly one week! Make sure to gather six points' worth of number tags and come back by then!"

Reimu began to step forward, figuring she would be the one to leave first. The other applicants made way for her, and Khara glanced at her expectantly before gesturing to the plank connecting the ship to land. "With that in mind, the first to pass may start!" Reimu was past her less than three seconds after she had announced the beginning of her phase, and her pace was quick as she descended to land through the plank. Kurapika and Leorio, attentive to Reimu's convicted self and the tension inherent of the Hunter Exam had their eyes on her as they muttered to themselves.

"I see that the people who've passed the third phase the quickest are put at an advantage here..."

"It does give you the time to hide your presence and check on your target's whereabouts easier when you go— Wait, Reimu, what the hell are you doing just standing next to the exit?!" The one to accusingly point Reimu's way from afar and break away from his mumbling was Leorio, who had garnered the attention of most applicants and even the responsible guide, who could not help but sneak a questioning glance Reimu's way when she noted her position near the exit before looking back at the chronometer on her hand.

Reimu, on the other hand, glared back at Leorio, and responded, "Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for Marisa and my target! It's not like it'll be that long before both get out of that ship, anyway!" Kurapika blinked incredulously at what he processed to be Reimu's overly straightforward approach to the phase, while Leorio's eyebrows furrowed further in erratic frustration as he contained the urge to stomp off of the ship and knock some sense into the seemingly naive applicant.

"Are you serious?! I can get waiting around for Marisa, but who'd stand around and wait for their target when they've got the perfect chance to hide around and ambush them for their tag?! And you think your target's just gonna sit around and let you take him on now that he knows you're waiting?!"

"The second person to pass may start!"

Khara's voice had drowned over Leorio's shouting, but Marisa appeared to have picked up on her words immediately and swiftly walked out of the ship to join Reimu. Reimu's focus was not on the arriving Marisa, however, seeing as Leorio continued to argue with her and she found that he was demanding answers from her; answers that would only prove his victory if left blank by silence. "What I do with this phase is none of your business, you know?! It at least isn't going to change the fact that I'm getting my target's number tag for sure! And if you're so doubtful, just be quiet and watch me!"

Leorio huffed. "Don't tell me I didn't warn you!"

Reimu did not deign to retort and instead finally shifted her gaze to Marisa, whose expression was composed of a carefree, even if subtle smile. "Well, in hindsight, waitin' out for the bald guy's better than trying to find him on a whole island. It's a pretty solid plan coming from Reimu," Marisa commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reimu questioned while raising her Purification Rod in her direction, feeling as though she had been underestimated.

Marisa reached out for the broom attached to her backpack and hopped onto it. Floating higher in the sky, though her position was still near Reimu, she said, "Just joking with ya. Kinda. Anyway, what're you gonna do if the bald guy runs away from you?"

"I told you to just watch, didn't I?" Reimu retorted, "As if he could run away from me. I'm getting his tag, no matter what!"

"The third to pass may start!"

Reimu and Marisa immediately directed their attention to the next applicant to leave the ship, and not because he happened to be Reimu's target. Rather, Hisoka's presence simply required some form of caution, as he always seemed to itch for a fight; something Reimu and Marisa did not feel like doing with a clearer goal in mind. Hisoka stepped forward in a calm stride, and only allowed himself a glance in Reimu and Marisa's direction. Seeing them staring at him, gauging his actions, Hisoka's smirk widened, but he did not find it pertinent to speak with them. Instead, he disappeared into the thick of the woods and left the rest of the applicants away without hesitation.

With that, Reimu and Marisa's gazes were back to the ship, and they were certain of the applicants that would follow Hisoka. After two minutes, they were equally tense before the departure of the mysterious, abnormal-seeming applicant, Gittarackur, who they saw as a nuisance if he were to ever plan on attacking them. Thankfully, he did not even attempt to acknowledge their presence, and walked into the forest without looking back with fidgety, frantic steps inhumane in nature. Then, Reimu approached the front of the plank, and assumed a fighting stance. Her right hand stretched forward, brandishing her weapon, and her left hand was behind her in order to quickly retrieve any paper charms or needles necessary for the upcoming battle. Conversely, Marisa did not move from her position in the air, which allowed her to oversee the applicants in the ship.

Khara, as well, was looking towards Reimu with an inkling of a frown, while Marisa noticed Reimu's target walking forward in preparation for his departure; his expression was equally as vacant when he laid eyes on Reimu. "Hey, you!" he called out to Reimu from afar. "You're in the way!"

Reimu locked eyes with the bald applicant, Hanzo, whose name she was able to hear from the announcement on the third phase, Hanzo, and displayed a carefree smile unexpected in light of the phase. "So what? As far as this phase is concerned, I can do whatever I want as long as I get your tag! The moment you're out of that ship, you're dead meat!"

"Oh yeah?! Well, if you don't get out my way, you're the one who's gonna be dead meat here, you hear me?! I don't have time to go hunt a tag that's only worth a point to me! My aim's number 199!" Hanzo furiously countered, only to freeze with a flinch, possibly while processing his own words. Reimu blinked in surprise at the reveal of his target, but she quickly took to smiling when she noticed his entire stance tensing, noting even Khara's fingers nearing the button on her chronometer. He grimaced darkly, his glare sharp, and reflecting none of the easygoing presence Reimu's smile did as he took a few, preemptive steps forward. "Well, you asked for it..."

"The fifth to pass may start!"

In the blink of an eye, Hanzo was gone from the ship. Marisa's drifted higher from the ground, astounded by the fact that she had been unable to spot Hanzo's movements before Reimu's Purification Rod was stopping his kick and her left arm was extending forward with a shining paper charm. "Marisa!"

"Huh?!"

Hanzo retracted his leg and instead swung his right arm to the side at speeds fast enough to make the blade peeking from out of the bandages near his wrist almost invisible. Marisa, agitated over Reimu's sudden exclamation of her name, attempted to close in her distance with her and observe her movements, but was unable to trace Hanzo's attack, and saw instead the abnormally large paper charm on Reimu's hand, clearly a special kind from her normal ones. Upon split seconds of reflexive realization, Marisa noted she recognized it: it burned as though a flame, but it contained nothing but spiritual power; Reimu was using only three fingers to keep it in place, and found herself ducking to glue it onto the ground.

As a result, Hanzo's blade had sliced through her arm with a single graze. Since her arm had been outstretched, the blade had luckily not been able to reach beyond the beginning of her forearm, so her body, particularly her throat was unscathed. "Reimu!" From the ship came multiple voices calling her name, but Reimu's only focus was in setting the paper charm. She ignored the excruciating pain originated from the cut and glanced to her right, hoping Marisa was nearby. _Divine Arts..._ In her mind, she could already voice the skill, but she knew better than to do so outwardly when her chance had arrived. _Omnidirectional Demon-Binding Circle!_ Blood flowed down her arm, almost reaching her wrist the moment the paper charm was on the ground and spread its spiritual power out into a circle. Hanzo had been preparing for another attack, seeing as he had failed to stop Reimu despite the cut (or at least force her to jump back in order to dodge), but he found himself unable to further move when Reimu stood from her crouching position.

"Th-the sixth to pass may start!"

Though Khara's words were audible to the entirety of the applicants, all of them had been distracted simply processing Reimu's mysterious technique, which was engulfing both the opponent and herself with light. It did not stray from its designated area, and it assuredly appeared that Hanzo was paralyzed, but Reimu herself was unable to move. Now, they were blocking the applicants' exit, and the sixth to pass could not even fathom approaching the two. Rather, it was Marisa who flew for the barrier at the fast speeds her broom allowed her to, her expression belying panic as wide eyes noted the blood dripping from Reimu's fingers already. _I know that one; it's one of her spellcards. And if she was callin' me back there, she's got to be counting on me to search through the bald guy while I can...!_

To her own surprise, Marisa's hand had entered the barrier without a problem, though she felt as though being lightly stung in all parts of her skin; unlike the two, it looked like she had not been subjected to enough of a discharge of the spiritual power to be bound in place. Regardless, since the attack was meant to be a spellcard, its harm on her was mild, and Hanzo was likely not sustaining damage equivalent to his cut to Reimu's arm. Marisa took a glimpse of a scowling Reimu before scouring for Hanzo's tag, feeling through his black shirt first and foremost, only to reach for the bandanna around his neck. As her last spot, knowing she was running out of time, Marisa's hand was directed towards the cloth around Hanzo's waist, wide enough that it could fit something behind it and tight enough it did not seem to easily fall. Reaching for beyond the surface side of the cloth serving almost as a belt, Marisa noted immediately more solid textures corresponding to small bags, containing, from what she could feel outside, sharp objects; likely hidden weapons. Finding that she could even feel Hanzo twitching, Marisa hurriedly scurried through the very small compartments, her own hand trembling as she found a few kunai at first. Then, on a compartment slightly on Hanzo's left, she felt a round object in her hand, with a sensation on its back similar to what she had experienced fiddling with her own number tag.

Her fingers slipped out of the small compartment and pulled the tag from Hanzo's reach to such an extent she almost thought it could have just flown from her hand were she too careless. Pocketing the tag, Marisa let herself fall back to her floating broom and watched as the light began to wane when she was already flying back and high, away from Hanzo. Her first instinct would have been to grab onto Reimu and escape with her at high speeds, but Marisa knew better now that she had executed her friend's plan to perfection: the actions involved in reaching out for Reimu and taking her away would have been enough time wasted to allow a freed Hanzo to take back the tag, while simply flying high enough that he could not possibly reach her would guarantee the tag's safety. Even if Reimu happened to be somewhat injured, she would likely be able to escape on her own as well.

"The, the seventh to pass may start...!"

Reimu, free to move at last, mustered a triumphant, though bitter smile as she swung her Purification Rod to block any preemptive attack from Hanzo, who was just as able to move as she was. Hanzo, on the other hand, was looking to his left, where Marisa could be seen as a speck of darkness contrasting with the light of the sky. _Damn it...! I underestimated them! I didn't think she was gonna resort to a trick like this instead of just fighting me! If it's come to this, I've gotta get her friend to go down and give that tag to me!_ Then, he shifted his gaze to Reimu, and immediately dashed in her direction. She was already a few centimeters up in the air, and she had stopped moving her weapon, noting Hanzo moving away from the plank and jumping towards her. The other applicants were finally able to exit, and both the sixth and seventh took to rushing past the two at a quick pace. In the time they did so, Reimu's Purification Rod had close to half of its handle cut down by Hanzo, who was able to propel his leg towards Reimu's stomach with such ease it seemed almost as though he was as used to floating as Reimu when he jumped for her. Unfortunately, she could not rely on her other arm to stop the attack as it she could hardly feel it, and Hanzo had been too fast for Reimu to adjust to the fact that her weapon's size had been reduced, leaving an opening for his foot to connect with its intended target.

Reimu suppressed a gasp, recoiling only slightly out of sheer willpower as the force behind the attack was considerable, and her reaction time was lacking when it came to preparing a retaliation before Hanzo's next action became noticeable. Reimu swung her weapon in his direction, from the right where it had been hanging miserably after Hanzo's blow to Reimu's stomach. However, the attempt had ended in failure as he had simply grasped her right wrist when he was reaching for her, and proceeded to forcefully move her arm aside with only the strength of his left non-dominant hand. His grip on her was further used to keep balance and get his right arm to reach closer to Reimu, particularly to her number tag, though his concealed blade was equally prepared to close in on her throat instead, just in case.

Reimu rose her leg for a kick, but it was blocked with Hanzo's shin which withstood the lacking force of the blow. Unbeknownst to Hanzo, however, the attack was meant only as a distraction for her rising left arm, which bore a spinning orb of light, comprised entirely of spiritual power. The pain involved with carrying a heavy ball of pressuring light using an arm deeply cut by a sharp blade was more than excruciating for a normal individual, but by the time Reimu had closed her eyes, she found herself distant from her own senses. Conversely, Hanzo was about to take Reimu's number tag before he noticed the blue light from the corner of his eye and proceeded to let his hidden blade slide out of his bandages, all the while he inwardly remarked on Reimu's extremely under-guarded self.

She sighed, as if weary of the somewhat troublesome situation that was her bleeding wound, before her eyes were opened to a blade squarely missing her throat by a single centimeter. Her body, light as a feather, floated back at an abruptly fast speed, dragging Hanzo along almost effortlessly despite his attempts at pushing her towards him. To his dismay, it appeared as though she did not even know she dodged his attack and her clear, determined gaze was indicative of her straightforward goal: to bring the fight to an end. In pushing him back, towards her, she aimed her left arm, soiled with dried blood in his direction, the ying-yang orb only a short distance from his stomach. Her left palm drew closer, the blue light contrasting with the rusted red, and Hanzo realized he was too late in letting go of Reimu's right arm when he saw that the orb was growing in size at a fast rate. "Take that!"

The orb grazed Hanzo's clothing, and his widened eyes were almost forced shut by the blinding light. However, he had managed to salvage his situation at the very last minute due to one factor only: the fact that the ying-yang orb was propelling him upwards while, something that would normally dictate danger for someone unable to fly, seeing as he would have simply fallen to the ground mid-attack and sustained damage from that unplanned fall. He pressed his hand onto the ever-growing ball of light, and saw himself accompanying its rotation by its force alone and being thrown off of it in consequence of the action. While Reimu was flying away, rising in the direction of her friend on a broom, Hanzo was dropping into the forest as the ying-yang orb that was supposed to assail him ascended into the sky before fading from existence.

He had avoided most of the destructive power inherent of the spiritual power incorporated into the attack, but it was with a cost; his aching hand signalled the burn in his hand. Unlike the previous magical skill Reimu had used on him, the orb of light carried power meant for a real fight rather than a mere nuisance. Had he taken the full brunt of it, Hanzo noted, he would have been liable to break one or two ribs from the sheer pressure and force, not to mention the burns. Due to the attack, his abdomen hurt ever so slightly, and his shirt was singed. He glanced up at Reimu and Marisa, the mysterious pair that had been utterly successful in stealing his tag before he could even venture into the island: were he to throw a projectile their way, they would easily dodge it, so there was nothing he could do against the flying opponents. Cursing himself for having lowered his guard on a reckless Reimu, he sighed before flawlessly landing on the branch of a tree.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Meanwhile, the number of applicants on the ship had decreased to sixteen, and Gon, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika were still far from passing by the guide and beginning the phase. After Reimu and Hanzo had removed themselves from the front of the wooden plank connecting the ship to land, everything proceeded as normal, but the four had watched the skirmish between the two regardless. Naturally, they were unable to garner Reimu's attention even with Leorio's loud voices of protest, and Marisa had been similarly distracted overseeing the fight.

"No matter how loud you scream about her injury, Reimu won't hear you, Leorio," was Kurapika's interjection to the matter after he found his mind was being haunted by the echoes of Leorio's concerns, mixed into his already negative thoughts and amplifying his sour mood. "Save your breath and focus on the phase itself."

Leorio snapped his head in Kurapika's direction, finally shifting his attention into something other than Reimu or Hanzo, the applicant currently second to Hisoka in Leorio's most hated applicant list for having not simply blocked Reimu's paralysis ability with his bare hands. "Focus? You're asking me to just ignore a flesh wound like that?! If it's left alone, it could get infected, and nobody's got any antibiotics conveniently lying around just to treat an infected cut that's bleeding her dry! How's Reimu gonna swing her left arm around at all for the rest of the phase?!"

"I'm not saying it isn't serious," Kurapika calmly retorted, "I'm saying that you can't do anything about it right now. You haven't even been let out of this ship yet, so wailing about Reimu's injuries is nothing short of pointless and distracting."

"Well, yeah, but...!" Unable to argue against Kurapika's main point, however, Leorio's mouth had almost been forced shut from a lack of words, as even he could see that he could not act towards Reimu's situation yet. His fists trembled in ardent fury, anticipating physical conflict, but since there was no one truly to blame, or anyone he could take his anger out on, he could not help but continue to vent his emotions through bitter words: "Damn it...!" he muttered, a wistful sort of concern evident in his downcast gaze beyond his clear anger. "Right when I warn her about getting into something dangerous, she goes out of her way to get injured! She didn't even try to dodge, and everyone knows she could've done it with her eyes closed! If she expects me not to say 'I told you so' over something like that, she's got it coming, that's for sure!"

"It was on purpose, you know?" Killua casually uttered from the side, only eyeing Leorio without bothering to turn his way. "She knew he was just trying to make her stop her magic and get out of his way, so she went for the shock factor of taking the hit without moving away from her spot to make sure he wouldn't have the reaction time to attack her a second time."

"Huh...?" Leorio blinked as he faced Killua incredulously, only to scowl as he truly processed his explanation. "You mean she let herself get slashed just so she could stall him for a few seconds? What kinda plan is that?!"

"It was probably also meant to keep him in place at the same time," Kurapika added, staring into the horizon so as to make sure to keep track of all the applicants leaving in case one would act like Reimu. "Her strategy hinged on her position right in front of the plank; dodging would have given him an opening to escape, foiling her plan."

"Still, I didn't think Reimu had it in her to strategize," Killua commented, glancing at Kurapika with mild curiosity, but not for Kurapika himself, but at his thoughts on Reimu. "In a way, her reckless personality came in handy to let everyone's guard down."

"That may have even been her intent when she taunted her target," Kurapika said, "She placed herself close to the ship not only to be able to intercept him no matter what, but also as an intimidation tactic. Admittedly enough, I'm just as impressed as Killua when it comes to the fact that head-strong Reimu was the one who thought of this..."

"A-aren't you two reading way too much into it?" Leorio weakly questioned, finally seeing a chance to even speak over the Kurapika and Killua's stream of strategic deductions. "This is Reimu we're talking about! I bet the most she thought about was the part about setting her magic up and trapping the bald guy, but decided to be reckless with the guy's attacks just so he'd stay in place or something. Don't go giving her that much credit when she got herself injured!"

"Well, it was a reckless plan, all things considered," Killua said with a shrug, and smiled deviously. "Just like Reimu. If you think about it, she could've just dropped her magical paper, dodged and called it a day."

"Right?! She didn't have to get a cut like that! And I'm not standing for it! If I ever find them in this damn island, she's gonna get an earful from me!" Leorio ardently shouted, seemingly determined and itching to leave the ship already, even though there were still many applicants ahead of him.

As if to bring the conversation to a quick end, Killua simply rolled his eyes at the perceived uselessness of his simplistic actions and took to facing the side opposite of Leorio's, where Gon stood with a faint smile adorning his jovial features. His eyes burned as strongly as Leorio's, but for differing reasons, as his convictions lay near excitement rather than concern. Seeing that, Killua smiled again, amused at his unique response to the situation. "So, think you could steal the tag as smoothly as Reimu just did, Gon?"

Gon finally blinked, processing that he was being addressed, only to shake his head. "Reimu's plan was really nice and straightforward, but I can't take it as any reference. After all, it only worked because of her magic and because Marisa was with her, and I want to catch the tag on my own, with my own capabilities. If I can't do something like that, there's no way I can become a Hunter like my dad."

Killua stared at him for about five seconds, pondering the needless determination in Gon for only the Hunter Exam, and proceeded to utter, "Heh. If you say so. Just don't go crying for my help after saying something like that; I wouldn't wanna keep getting along with you if you're actually a pushover."

Gon let his tongue out cheekily. "As if! As far as I care, I don't need to see your face for the whole phase!"

"Oh yeah? Then I'll ignore you even if I spot you, because I also don't wanna see your miserable face for the entire phase! Even Marisa's sounding better than you right now!"

"Go hang out with her, then! It's not like I need you to pass the phase, anyway!"

"Well, I don't need you, either!"

Both let out a mock huff and turned away from each other, but were only able to remain in that position for a few seconds before sneaking glances each others' way. They broke into smiles, and faced each other again while playfully snickering. "Try seeing my face by the end of this, will you? With the tags, of course."

"You can count on that!" Gon proudly exclaimed, "Good luck, Killua!"

Killua shrugged, as though the support was beneath him. "Sure. Good luck to you, too, Gon."

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The night was upon Zevil Island, and most applicants were hiding so they could have a safe rest for the next day, Reimu and Marisa included. Just as Reimu had fled from Hanzo after her final attack, Marisa greeted her with a first-aid kit taken out of her bag on her lap, ready to be opened and used. According to Marisa, it had been a gift from Eirin, who was certain they would face further injuries in their journey. She had been right, Marisa begrudingly noted at the time when she had to hastily bind Reimu's arm with bandages using only her own left hand and Reimu's. Naturally, they had found the need to take refuge elsewhere to better tend to the wound, leading them to scour the island for a proper location to rest.

They settled on the very cave one pale-faced applicant was slowly stepping towards, spotting faint blue light emanating from its entrance. By now, they had surely already cleaned and wrapped new bandages around Reimu's wound, hoping for it not to become infected. Seeing as there was still light within the cave, it was easy to assume they were still awake, but on the other hand, the applicant could conversely theorize the strange flames served to scare the animals away from their location while. Either way, the otherworldly colour of the lighting of the cave clarified the identity of the two temporary residents, and the applicant broke into a small smirk upon noting that he had his target cornered.

Snakes slithered from the similarly coloured roots grasping the solid dark stone outlining the small caves' entrance, drawn to the unheard sounds of a special flute he grasped with both hands. From a distance, the movements of his fingers were almost untraceable, but the snakes seemed to be arriving from every direction in the vicinity, much to the dismay of another applicant who was committed to following her target. Her own movements had been delicate and subtle, untraceable in another sense of the word, but the snakes nearby demanded her to not only pay attention to Bourbon, her target, but also the oncoming snakes that could brush past her. She tip-toed about the bushes she was hiding behind, at the beginning of the dense line-up of trees that Bourbon had specifically decided to cross in search of his target. It differed significantly from the forest past the cave, in which tree roots abounded the ground and hung from the edges in a strangely yellow-tinted brown color.

Ponzu herself was not especially familiar with the layout of the island, as she had focused all of her efforts on finding and apprehending her target. However, the numerous snakes by his side ruined her chances of a swift ambush, as they would probably be used to shield him and attack her at the same time. Additionally, none of the chemicals in her possession would be sure to affect Bourbon in a wide open area from which he could easily escape. As such, the sight of the snakes slithering into the cave was considered by Ponzu as an opportunity to strike, if her timing were right. She could not do so at the moment, when Bourbon was still so wary of his surroundings and the snakes were so nearby. One of her hands was centimeters away from her large yellow hat, as if in preparation for her plans.

A shout echoed from the cave walls, the voice distinctively female. "Marisa, wake up! There are snakes everywhere!" Ponzu could only faintly make out the words from who she assumed to be Reimu, the mysterious flying applicant responsible for the ruckus at the very beginning of the phase. Then, another scream originated from the location, though the voice was deeper than the first one; clearly from a different person. Ponzu figured either Reimu or Marisa constituted as Bourbon's targets, and nodded to herself as she stared at the entrance of the cave, narrow and now packing with snakes. Considering Reimu and Marisa's strength, even despite their injuries, it was clear to Ponzu that Bourbon would not have stood a chance against them in the morning, when their guard would assuredly be up. _So this is why he was sneaking around even at night,_ Ponzu thought, _If he doesn't catch them off-guard like this, there's no way he could get their tags. Besides, in a cave, they can't escape by flight. In a way, they couldn't have picked a worse place to rest at. Still, now isn't the best time to attack. Either I get him when he's fighting someone directly or when he's getting the tags directly. I just have to be patient..._

Now, calculating eyes settled on Bourbon and Bourbon only as she detected movement from him. He seemed to be intent on hiding in case they were able to escape his trap, or perhaps for the sake of an ambush. Regardless, Ponzu could not lose track of him, and she took small steps to the side so as to keep a safe distance from the snake charmer, who was positioning himself in a set of bushes right of her. However, she saw him freeze in place centimeters before the very same bushes, his gaze affixed to the cave. His expression was hard to see for Ponzu in the middle of the night, but it was clear something was causing him some form of shock, and she had a need to understand his every action in order to properly tail him. She let her eyes drift away from Bourbon and take sight of the cave, but the very moment flashes of red darkened by the night sky assailed her vision, Ponzu knew why Bourbon had been unable even to rush for the bushes as a last measure in order to hide.

The young woman in red surfaced from the dark stone as though she had been submerged in the solid matter, jumping out of it with a preemptive kick to the air. She was scowling, and her right hand held what Ponzu saw as only an especially thin pole with scraps of paper attached (why that was her weapon of choice was beyond Ponzu's understanding, just like every single show of her power so far). She laid eyes on Bourbon immediately, and pointed to him with the weapon. "So there was someone behind these snakes after all!"

"They're on the ceiling, too, Reimu! Just hurry it up and freakin' beat the guy to the ground!"

Reimu looked to the side, towards the cave's entrance, and countered, "I'm on it already! And it's not like you can't just burn the stupid things and get them away from you!" Reimu floated away from five snakes that had attempted to lunge at her before facing Bourbon again, noting him running from the site in shock. Ponzu jumped back, turned around and took to following suit, realizing that Bourbon's plan had failed on all fronts for reasons no one would reasonably fathom. "Hey, come back here and get your snakes off of our resting place! Some people actually wanted to sleep, you know?!" Her exclamations were loud and assertive, bringing to question how much she truly cared about other people who could have been sleeping nearby. Feeling the voice close to her, Ponzu glanced behind her, and saw a glimpse of shining orbs of light, their size as grand as the orb she had used to attack her target in the morning, flying to Ponzu's left, where Bourbon's general area resided. They appeared to have been aimed his way despite the fact that Ponzu could not see Reimu within the forest, meaning that she could not be controlling their movement directly.

As such, Ponzu frightfully concluded that the aim of the orbs, likely extremely hot in temperature and heavy from their large appearance, was automatic, though it was not especially accurate. A few of the orbs crashed onto the ground Bourbon had stepped on as he ran, and short shockwaves coursed through the area, almost compromising Ponzu's location and her tailing of Bourbon. Her dash through the forest had been a silent one, but even she was panicking in regards to the unknown magic, so widened eyes grew only wider when she saw Bourbon finally being engulfed by two of the orbs, which flashed brighter in light as though announcing the detainment of their target, a target that had now been defeated by Reimu instead of Ponzu. Finally, Ponzu took sight of Reimu from over the trees, lowering herself as she passed her weapon to her left hand and took out five pieces of reddened paper with her right. When the light faded, fallen snakes lay immobile near Bourbon's body, which twitched in an attempt to stand. Ponzu noted from afar that he had no significant injuries, much to her surprise. _Did she go easy on him...?_ Bourbon was on his knees and Ponzu tensed upon processing the opening created by Reimu for an attack, but her trembling hands hesitated.

While Bourbon was battered enough not to be able to escape, Reimu's abilities were a tremendous unknown. She was just as capable of launching attacks with orbs of light as she was of passing through solid objects, something no one would have been able to account for. The likelihood of Reimu possessing even more abilities beyond that were high, and Ponzu was absolutely certain that she could not go head-to-head with Reimu and feasibly win. _What should I do...?_ Ponzu grimaced as she witnessed Reimu throw the five pieces of paper Bourbon's way. _The moment I make a move and she notices me, I'm screwed, but I need Bourbon's tag if I want to become a Hunter. Since Reimu can fly, it'll be much easier for her to avoid my bees, too... I don't have a way out of this!_

All of the amulets hit Bourbon himself, as the snakes within his clothing had lost their lives to alliviate the damage of the orbs of light to his body. "Marisa's probably burning all of your snakes right now, so they'll stop gathering there if they know what's good for them," Reimu said as she coldly watched Bourbon's eyes widen from the pure shock of the spiritual power contacting his body and putting a stop to his movements. Now, he twitched uncontrollably, as if affected by a powerful electric reaction; to Ponzu, he seemed to only be in mild pain, but the fact that he could barely move was telling of the strange magic within Reimu's paper. "Anyway, your target must have been me or Marisa, but you never would have stood a chance against us. You might as well give us your tag and make sure we can pass the exam instead." Despite her phrasing, Reimu was already squatting near Bourbon and stretching her right hand towards his clothing in search of the hidden tag without his permission. Bourbon's twitching had intensified, and he was producing some form of a sound as a protest, but Reimu was entirely unfazed as she grabbed onto the tag. Then, Reimu floated away from Bourbon with a smile, and let her bent legs hang straight again by the time she was in the air, storing the items she had collected from Ponzu's target. "You better have learned your lesson, whoever you are! You'll regret it if you come after us again!"

Reimu flew from the area, her stance carefree in relation to the damage she had caused, while Ponzu blinked in disbelief in regards to the sight. In only a few minutes, all of her efforts had been ruined, and whatever was left of her hopes was floating away from her grasp along the mysterious applicant. _I'm done for..._ Ponzu dejectedly thought, _There's no way I'm going to be able to steal Bourbon's tag away from her of all people..._ She glanced at Bourbon, who was yet unable to move, only to look back to Reimu. Ponzu could barely see her by that point, and she truly saw no hope in her situation, but she found herself stepping for the cave regardless, knowing that was where Reimu was returning to. _But then again, what else can I do? I've still got six days left in this island._ Ponzu's gaze did not leave Reimu as she silently dashed, hoping to catch up to Reimu's flying speed. She managed to greatly reduce her distance, so she slowed her stride and watched as Reimu met the gaze of her friend and sighed before landing near her.

The two had failed to detect her at all, if anything. Keeping that slight positivity to heart, Ponzu decided to at least hold her ground and await her chance, as not all hope was entirely lost. Though, her bitter frown did not cease, and her confidence in her success was minimal at best. Charred corpses of snakes were scattered about the area of the cave, and the singed smell was unpleasant in its needless intensity. "No way we're gonna sleep here now," Reimu's companion, Marisa, dryly uttered before yawning. Strangely enough, she seemed to be the only one drowsy from the abruptly stopped sleep, while Reimu herself appeared to have some energy, her gaze sharp. "It's all burnt to a crisp. Snakes included. Not all that comfortable, just sayin'."

"What a bother," Reimu remarked before turning around, her gaze directed to the forest she had just flown from. "Now we're going to have to sleep on top of trees or something, because we're definitely not spending the whole night looking for another cave."

"How'd it go, by the way? Did you beat the guy up? 'Cause he sure deserved it," Marisa said as she dusted off her clothing with only her hand, clumsily so.

"Of course I did," Reimu proudly asserted, "I also took his tag, so you're two points away from passing this phase." Then, the number tag seemingly fell from her right sleeve onto her left hand, and carelessly glanced at the number imprinted on it: '105'. "Here." She outstretched the hand holding the tag to Marisa, who took it, pocketed it and removed her bag from her back. Ponzu gulped, watching as her desired tag was being stuffed into a dense bag, likely along with the tag Reimu had collected from her target.

Marisa clicked her tongue as she closed the bag and strapped it on her shoulder. "Might as well have been eighty two if it's this close a number."

Reimu shrugged. "It's not like we're going to bother searching for the target in the whole island," she said with a dismissive wave of her right hand, "As long as we beat two more people up, we're done here."

"Ya mean as long as you beat two more people up, 'cause I'm pretty much always gonna be on the sidelines," Marisa bitterly countered.

"It's not like it's my fault your dominant arm's injured," Reimu said, "Besides, it this isn't a spellcard battle, you can't possibly be a close-range fighter."

"I know that already," Marisa said, only to sigh. "Doesn't mean it still isn't a drag watching without doing anything. Vacation's nice and all, but it didn't have to last more than two months."

"Well, you killed a bunch of monsters back in phase three," Reimu said, staring Marisa's way in a matter-of-fact fashion, with her hand now placed on her waist.

"That's like sayin' I at least fried some fairies," Marisa blankly uttered, "Think that's any kinda consolation for me?"

Reimu smiled apprehensively. "Sorry..."

With that, the two flew, and Ponzu followed after them, unable to even fathom the exact meaning behind the conversation. Dismissing it as irrelevant, she focused instead on their positions in the sky, and wondered where and how she would go about sleeping without losing sight of Reimu or Marisa.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The sun did not shine as brightly through the Winter clouds, and the people in the Human Village moved slowly, perhaps even warily on such a normal time of day. It was not particularly difficult for Miko to guess why, when the disappearance of a man was yet to be solved, and the identity of the perpetrator unknown. Were it certainly the doing of a youkai, it would likely not have been so unnerving to the populace: youkai as the enemy was only the default state of the Human Village. However, there was even the possibility that a human was behind the affair; perhaps multiple. Miko had been able to listen to some arguments from talking villagers on the past days she had spent investigating the matter, some of which were debates on the true nature of the culprit behind the disappearance, and the implications of the reality of the Nen rumor, causing unease to the people. Miko did not directly interfere in those discussions. Instead, she had approached villagers in search of a certain residence, and was pointed far into the village, near the outskirts.

Miko walked through such a wilting settlement displaying nothing more than confidence, expecting people's eyes to rest on her in some manner or another, though there were not many in the area. She stood by the wooden door, and knocked on it gently. She heard the sounds of footsteps from within, so she was certain someone was inside, but she took to patiently waiting to be personally received. With a creak, the door was open, revealing a short, elderly woman whose squinted eyes could barely be seen under her creasing eyebrows, as she frowned in confusion. "You..." she wearily muttered, "Aren't you the hermit saint...? Now, what exactly would someone such as yourself seek from a place this shabby? I'm afraid I have nothing I could possibly offer you at this time..."

Miko calmly shook her head and offered a gentle smile. "Please, don't concern yourself with such matters," she said, "My business here is hardly worth the laborous welcome. As it stands, I came here only to ask your grandson a few questions."

"My grandson?" she questioned.

"I believe his name was Seijirou, if I'm not mistaken," Miko explained, dropping the smile in face of the topic while holding a hand to her chest, eyeing the old woman sympathetically, "I imagine you're aware of this yourself, but there has been a string of incidents occurring in the Human Village, and the disappearance of one Sakichi Shirato has been the latest case so far, the only one involving a human as the victim. I have been working to resolve this grievous matter by investigating these cases, and I've heard from Sakichi's mother and father that he was rather close friends with your grandson. As such, his cooperation would be extremely helpful to the cause, since he could provide me with the clues necessary to retrieve Sakichi and catch the culprit behind this."

The old lady took a moment to think over Miko's words, and Miko was similarly patient in awaiting a response. Then, as a grimace surged in the woman's features, Miko's eyes narrowed with coursing thought. "Sakichi, hm... His parents consulted me over this just the past week," she stated, "They also wanted to speak to Seijirou, but at the time, he was asleep. Even now, it's much of the same. I'd wake him up, but it just hasn't been possible."

"It hasn't been possible?" Miko asked, calmly so; as though she had partially expected to make that question. "You mean that Seijirou hasn't been able to wake up at all?"

"No, he gets up on his own from time to time," the old lady responded, the hand near the door tightening its needless hold around the handle, "but he's been sleeping much more, even by daytime. If anything, it's more common seeing him up at night. I do apologize for not being able to let you meet Seijirou, but I honestly don't even know how to wake him."

 _Just like with Sakichi, then..._ Miko thought while nodding in acknowledgement of the elderly woman's explanation of the situation. "None of that is your fault," Miko said, "so there is no need to apologize." She then glanced beyond the old woman, peering through the residence noting the lack of any presence beyond the old lady's. She heard Seijirou lived with his grandmother and two sisters, but not even Seijirou, who was presumably asleep, could be noticed from her current distance. "Rather, though it may be somewhat presumptuous of me to do so, I would like to see Seijirou regardless. As you know, I am a hermit: since I'm sure you know this amount of sleep is abnormal, it would stand to reason that I may be able to dispel the power keeping him asleep. Would you at least let me see your grandson?"

"Ah!" The elderly woman stepped back, as if awed. "You would do that for him? If so, I couldn't thank you enough!" She mustered a smile and moved to the side so as to make way for Miko, motioning her inside. "Come in, come in! I wouldn't want to leave you outside for so long!"

Miko stepped inside while chuckling, seemingly amused. Her smile was wry afterwards, however, seeing the woman close the door behind her in an almost eager fashion. "I almost feel as though I should apologize to you, instead," Miko said, "While I am flattered, I can't say I will be able to answer all of your expectations."

"Just the fact that you will try is enough," the woman retorted as she urged Miko to follow her onto a hallway to the left. "Since Sakichi's disappearance, I've been thinking that Seijirou might be next and it pains me just to think about it. If I had the stamina just to head for the Hakurei Shrine, I would have even consulted that youkai shrine maiden, but Seijirou keeps telling me everything is alright. As far as I can tell, he may even be possessed. If anyone could offer their help, I would more than appreciate it."

Miko looked around the small hallway, still noting no presences from either of the rooms there, only for the old lady to open the door farthest from the entrance. It was then she very faintly heard the sound of someone breathing, indicating at least a living human was present. "Well, this is just as beneficial to me," Miko said, "considering Sakichi had also been stricken with this odd sleep before his disappearance. If I can investigate this condition, I could potentially catch the culprit." Miko followed the old lady into the room, and found in it little more than a futon and a few wooden wardrobes resided. Within the futon was a young man likely in his early twenties, his complexion somewhat pale, lacking in vitality.

"This is Seijirou," the lady said somberly, and it did seem even she did not want to gaze at his sleeping form for long. "He's always been a spirited young man, but now he seems like a completely different person."

"In what way has he changed beyond his sleeping habits?" Miko promptly asked as she crouched near the young man, regarding him almost just as somberly, but the more she squinted, the more that hint of pity faded from her expression. She could barely feel it, but there was certainly an aura of sorts within the young man, and faintly surrounding him, as well. She recalled the time she battled the men that were watching over her, who had used a Nen skill that concealed their presence. It appeared clearly that the same skill was being used for Seijirou while asleep so as to not attract attention from youkai, and it was effective enough Miko would have had a hard time searching for the young man had there not been people reporting the condition he was in. There was nothing abnormal about his sleeping state, though he did not move in the slightest, and Miko no bruises or the like that indicated he was fighting.

However, it was clear from the beginning that youkai had been exterminated. Either he did not participate in the exterminations, Miko reasoned, or he was in such a way skilled he faced no trouble with defeating the youkai. It was further possible to assume the unknown Nen arts, such as the one presently used to hide Seijirou had played a big role in facilitating the exterminations. Miko glanced back at the old woman expectantly, and she answered sourly, "When he does wake up, he acts like he knows me, but there's something off about him. The best way I can describe it is that Seijirou's... Calmed down. As if he's grown about ten years older, or more."

"I see..." Miko nodded to herself, considering other testimonies. _Incidentally, Seijirou apparently wakes up often at night, but I was told Sakichi would often be awake in the morning or late afternoon. These time disparities make it more likely only one culprit is at hand here, and Seijirou isn't currently awake. There could definitely be more victims outside of the village being moved this precise moment._ "Has he ever told you anything strange?"

"Lately, all he's ever told me is strange," the old lady said in a voice slightly higher than before, as if projecting the frustration from past discussions, "He keeps leaving in the middle of the night, and I only notice he's not there when I wake up by the early morning. No matter how I ask him about it, he doesn't give me a straight answer. Seijirou has never once lied to me in this way..."

"It seems the circumstances are hard on you, as well," Miko said seeing the elderly woman grimace with nothing but genuine bitterness and concern, and offered a small smile as consolation. "You have my sympathy. As for his condition..." Miko stood, and stepped closer to the old lady without glancing back at Seijirou, seemingly finished entirely with her business. "Have you ever heard of Nen before?"

"Nen? I think I've heard the term before, but I don't pay much attention to rumors..." the old lady muttered as if flustered, but her grimace remained in perhaps resentment for her own ignorance. Her hands were roughly clasped together, trembling from age as she spoke: "My granddaughters have been trying to know more about it, but they don't usually tell me about these things. They must think I would be rattled by them..."

"Nen is a foreign energy that has recently spread in Gensokyo among the human population," Miko explained cleanly, but slowly in an effort to better communicate with the elderly woman. "Rumors speak of a group capable of wielding this force, and that the recent incidents may or may not be connected. Your grandson is currently shrouded by this very same energy, though it seems you cannot see it yourself."

"What...?"

"Fortunately, this means that he probably isn't possessed by a ghost or youkai," Miko said, "However, since the energy itself is foreign and its effects on your grandson are unknown to me as of yet, I cannot act recklessly."

"To think not even a saint can fathom that power... Is it that obscure?" the old lady questioned, her voice dripping with a hint of fear beyond her simple surprise.

"It is more than obscure," Miko said, the negative reaction and topic warranting her smile to become wry in nature, constituting as a self-aware show of weakness, "You could go as far as to say it's otherworldly. While I would probably find a solution to this given enough time, I feel as though you would benefit from relying on another figure whose abilities could be better suited for the task. Furthermore, I'd like to focus my efforts on finding Sakichi so as to make sure no more missing people arise."

"I understand your reasoning, but another person? Who exactly would you have in mind?"

Miko averted her gaze from the old lady. "Well..." After a purposefully vague explanation of the individual in question, Miko left the elderly lady with a polite farewell and words of reassurance, though her mind was already on a completely different train of thought entirely. _That additional Nen is abnormal, even for the average Nen-user. I at first thought the sleep could be a side effect of some other Nen sorcery, but it seems like Seijirou's mind is being taken over by another, the exact same entity described by Sakichi's parents. Calm, and clearly more mature, they said. It would be no stretch to assume this is the mastermind possessing the two villagers, and the sleep is a sign that the vessel is currently not in use._

 _In turn, this means that the mastermind is nowhere in the Human Village, and that the leader of this group is nothing more than a pawn. Even if I get to the bottom of the circumstances of the Human Village, I will never be able to solve the incident in any capacity. If anything, the fact that Reimu and Marisa are in another dimension to solve it only proves this: they must be looking for the mastermind there because the mastermind's physical body was never in Gensokyo to begin with. In other words, there is nothing for me to do here._ Miko wryly smiled. _Let us simply leave the matter to the extermination professionals, and report this to the Lunarian. If this Sakichi is anywhere, it certainly isn't in Gensokyo._

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

Thankfully, Ponzu had been awoken by the sound of Reimu and Marisa bantering, and was able to follow them accordingly on the next morning. Although she did think of taking the tag at nighttime, Reimu and Marisa had actually been taking turns overseeing their location, so she had no real opening to access Marisa's bag. As such, her best bet would be to catch Marisa off-guard while Reimu would fight an opponent: Ponzu had only two chances at that, as far as she could tell.

Hours had passed since Reimu and Marisa's awakening, and the two were already far past the cave they had previously settled in. They had decided to walk their way through the island now, as they figured they could not encounter more applicants if they flew by. From Ponzu's perspective, what would normally have been a tense effort to scout for an opponent seemed like nothing more than a relaxing walk through the greenery of the island when it came to Reimu and Marisa, to the point where even she could not quite muster a sense of urgency. "Hey, it's a lake." Marisa vacantly pointed at the shimmering light in the distance with her left hand. "Wanna take a rest over there? I'm getting sick of walking." The forest itself was clearing up, the lacking amount of trees revealing more sunlight and giving way for the sight of a clear space composed of grass and a lake of modest size. Reimu was facing the same way as Marisa, so her gesture had been unwarranted, but she nonetheless smiled.

"Sure," she said, "I'm sick of walking, too, anyway. Besides, someone's going to have to pass by here eventually. Let's just take it easy."

Meanwhile, Ponzu, who was quickly surveying the area much more attentively than the two scowled upon noting something that was not quite beyond the line of sight of the two young women. If anything, she wondered how they had failed to notice as they continued to step forward. Even the man in question had stood from his spot on a rock with a grimace, only to tense at the direct sight of Reimu and Marisa. "Nothing better than makin' sure you're combat-ready. Who'd wanna beat people up on sore feet, am I right?"

"As right as you could ever be," Reimu said, "that's for sure. Though, you're not beating anyone up, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it; no fighting," Marisa retorted. "Just let me involuntarily relax in peace, will ya?"

The man Ponzu was fixated on narrowed his eyes, as if wondering if their absent-mindedness was a calculated move; a method to let his guard down. However, considering they had truly never directed their sights to his side, he quickly realized the two were simply distracted making lighthearted conversation despite the situation, leading him to walk for them and thrust his spear forward. "Hold it right there!" Only its sharp edge managed to obstruct their path to the middle of the lake's shore, leading Reimu to jump back and glance towards Marisa, who was already taking her broom out so as to escape the situation.

"Guess you're beatin' someone up on sore feet, Reimu!" Marisa commented from afar, having been able to fly at speeds so fast Ponzu blinked incredulously in order to process the fact that Marisa was so far away. However, she perceived that as her chance, as well. She let her gaze hang on Reimu and the male applicant, waiting for the time Reimu's guard would lower.

"Well, that's definitely a bummer, but I'm also glad I didn't have to wait around that long for another tag!" Reimu jumped further away from the man, whose build was enough to remind her of many opponents she had faced on Heavens Arena; she rose her Purification Rod in a defensive position and continued to stare at the man as though to watch for his next move.

"I'd say the very same to you, number seventy seven," the man claimed, his voice calm and dignified. "I hadn't thought to find my target so easily, but now that you've appeared before me, I request a duel! Fight me fairly, with our right as Hunters on the line!" He brandished his weapon, and Reimu's smile widened in pure delight, much to Ponzu's own contentment.

"Fine, you're on! Just don't go complaining after I have you beat!" Reimu watched as the man dashed for her and she immediately stepped aside, away from the spear's edge which had been about to stab her stomach. Then, she rose her leg for a kick just as the applicant was retracting the spear, but by that time, Ponzu's gaze had shifted from their battle and onto Marisa, who could barely be seen from the distance. That, however, was irrelevant in face of the bees she stored in her hat; they could all reach such heights with ease. Regardless, if she were to attack Marisa with the bees, they would simply cause Marisa's death, and the most that would bring her would be Marisa's unconscious body to sink into the lake. _She sure decided to place herself in the worst position for me. If anything, I could use the bees to lead her away from Reimu's sight and follow her there, but I can't guarantee she won't call out to her. On the other hand, she would probably refrain from it so Reimu doesn't break her concentration fighting the man. Either way, she wouldn't suspect anything if it's a bee or two pestering her friend, unlike Bourbon's relentless assault with the snakes. If there's any chance, it's got to be this!_

Ponzu lightly tapped her hat while beginning her movement through the forest to the other side, which was closest to Marisa and the lake. It also constituted as the location Ponzu wanted to guide her to, as the forest on the other end would make Reimu's potential search for Marisa more difficult and assure Marisa's fall would occur on either the branches of trees, or solid ground; both reachable for Ponzu without being noticed. Two bees emerged from her bright yellow hat, and they drifted around her, awaiting a command. Ponzu reached for her small light pink bag, taking it from her shoulders and opening it to encounter a variety of vials and supplies, though most of the contents were chemicals. She took out a single vial, and placed the bag back on her shoulders before rummaging through a pocket on the left side of her pants for a syringe, on its end a nozzle.

Ponzu removed the nozzle, and inserted the syringe's open end on a needle stuck between the lid of the vial. Mere mililitters of the liquid were extracted from the needle onto the syringe, and Ponzu quickly exchanged the needle for the nozzle while leaving only a drop to fall onto the ground. She rose her left hand near the two bees, and motioned her index finger down in a swift, calm movement. Catching sight of it, the bees flew near the hand, as though following it, and Ponzu took to elevating her right hand, which held the syringe, so as to position the nozzle as close as possible to one of the bees' stingers. A single drop of the liquid landed on the stinger, and Ponzu immediately scoured another pocket for a box of tissues already dowsed with disinfectant, one of which she used to clean the nozzle and return it to her pocket.

The bees themselves carried a poison capable of numbing the part of the body stung by them, paralyzing them, but the effect of only one or two bees was lacking for Ponzu's objective, as the paralysis of only Marisa's arm, for example, would not result in having her any closer to Marisa's bag. Rather, she needed a numbness strong enough for Marisa not to control her movements at all, leading her to fall from her broom. As such, the liquid on the bee's stinger was nothing more than a much more potent neurotoxin compatible with the bee's poison, capable of rendering Marisa unable to move when combined. However, Ponzu wryly noted, there were a few side effects to it that, if Marisa happened to be lucky, she could survive from. On the other hand, there was an equally plausible chance of Marisa's nervous system suffering permanent damage. _Sorry, but this is the Hunter Exam. If I go easy on any of you, I could never pass._

Even so, Ponzu would only commence her plan after positioning herself on the other side of the forest, and in her preparations, her pace had been considerably slowed. Now that she only needed to communicate orders to her bees, Ponzu switched to a faster step, stealthy enough not to garner the attention of Reimu and the male applicant fighting nearby. Marisa, meanwhile, appeared to be swinging her legs back and forth in the sky, as far as Ponzu could see. Ponzu's eyes lay solely on her even while moving, and her bees followed suit so as to not lose sight of their hive.

When Ponzu finally had a view to the male applicant's back trembling back and Reimu's confident expression, she stopped. She had still found no need to keep up with the fight between the two, and instead rose both of her hands, gesturing for the two bees. One of them was motioned to fly for Marisa, the one which did not hold the additional chemical. Since they were trained to attack only under certain conditions, Ponzu was certain that the bee would not sting Marisa even if provoked, just as she wanted. The other bee remained on stand-by until Marisa was in the right position to strike, and Ponzu watched as Marisa's flight was starting to ever so slightly sway upon the bee's arrival. Ponzu could not see Marisa's expressions or hear her clearly if she were to speak, but the fact that she was waving her arm about indicated that the bee was nearby, and that she would begin to move.

Unfortunately, Ponzu could not guide her bees from afar, but she had its flight be in one direction, the one opposite of the lake, so as to ensure that Marisa would at least be prone to flying towards the forest as well. As an alternative, Marisa could fly in the direction of Reimu's fight, which would classify as the worst case scenario, but in the event her plan failed in such a manner, it would be easy to send the other bee to sting Marisa and use her paralyzed state as a bargaining chip to guarantee Ponzu's safety and her target's tag. In other words, there was little room for demerits in her plan, as Reimu would not possibly fight Ponzu without assuring her friend's safety.

Ponzu smiled as Marisa's flight was leaning towards her, and she readied her left hand to send the other bee. However, a particularly loud shout momentarily broke her concentration and forced her to face the lake's side. "Hey, Marisa! I took him out already! Get over here so you can get your one point!" Reimu waved at Marisa with a number tag in her hand, reading out '373'.

Ponzu's eyes widened in shock as she felt her heart almost pound out of her chest from the unexpected turnabout. _Already?! But he looked so strong...!_ Ponzu was uncertain of the time that had passed while Reimu fought the applicant, but she had assumed not even ten minutes were taken for Reimu to knock him unconscious. His body lay on the ground motionless, and dirt marks on his clothing were telling of his battered self. Just like Bourbon, there were pieces of paper stuck to him, and she assumed that was so he would refrain from so easily moving after the match to possibly get the tag back from her. _Marisa might not be able to kill the bees, but Reimu can...! If they end up together, my plan is completely bust!_ She considered her options: Marisa was currently flying towards Reimu, and her speeds were too fast for Ponzu's bee to feasible reach her before Reimu can stand for Marisa and whack the bee away from her, possibly killing it; trying to send the other bee in would likely result in its death, and paralyzing her near Reimu would make it impossible for Ponzu to get the tags from Marisa, as negotiation would prove futile if Reimu were in possession of the bag. Ponzu sighed, and awaited the other bee's return. _Well, I've got one more chance. If I rush in for the tag, I'll only end up just like that applicant._

The bee had been ordered to return if there was nothing it could collide to in its trajectory, so it proceeded to drift around the hive once more as Ponzu dejectedly watched Marisa taking the additional tag from Reimu's hands. "That was fast," Marisa commented as she stared at the number on the white tag.

"He wasn't nearly as strong as that bald guy, so there was no way I would have struggled against him," Reimu claimed, though her free hand clutched an area directly below the bandage on her left arm as her instinctive reaction to the pain. "But I appreciated the enthusiasm, if anything. It made things a lot smoother."

"And this one's not even close to eighty two, but guess I'll take what I can—"

"Watch out!" Marisa rose her head to see what caused Reimu to interrupt her, only to be met with Reimu's back as she whacked a small, yellow projectile to the side at almost blinding speeds. Marisa laid eyes on the projectile, which fell near the forest Ponzu was hiding in: it was a thin, golden needle, visible within the grass only due to the way sunlight was being reflected from it; Ponzu could not see the needle being especially deadly without containing poison.

More importantly, Ponzu had been unable to sense the presence of whoever had thrown it beforehand, either, which was especially alarming. Ponzu was not a master of stealth, but she had a solid grasp of tailing others, and was good at knowing when she was being tailed, in turn. If not even Ponzu had detected the presence of that applicant, she could not fathom them as anything more than dangerous. When Ponzu followed Reimu's unwavering gaze, looking straight forward, she immediately nodded in acknowledgement of the pure danger emanating from the applicant that had surged from the thick of the forest. He towered Reimu even from a distance, and his face held multiple piercings, though Ponzu noted that they were eerily similar to the needle that was thrown, and that the applicant in question had possibly pierced himself with a multitude of the very same needles to begin with, adding to his sinister nature. Reddened eyes offered little emotion, but they seemed focused on Reimu and Marisa, and his expression conveyed only a vague smile, which contrasted with his blatant show of hostility.

He walked towards Reimu and Marisa without hesitation, though his legs seemed to twitch in an abnormal fashion before his feet would reach the ground, each step either exceedingly heavy or exceedingly light. Reimu scowled and brandished her Purification Rod before asking, "Are you trying to pick a fight or what? You better answer me before I start beating you up."

The applicant stopped in his tracks far too abruptly for anyone's peace of mind; Ponzu wondered how he had not tripped and fallen to the ground. "You see..." To everyone's surprise, the applicant began to speak in a surprisingly fluid, conversational manner as he threw his arm for the body of the other applicant defeated by Reimu only to point his way. "That man was actually my target. It wouldn't do if I didn't get his tag, so I'd like to negotiate."

"Negotiate? Then what was that needle for, huh?" Marisa questioned.

"That?" the applicant asked as though the matter were entirely insignificant to him. "Take it as a greeting of sorts. If you escape from me with my target's tag, though, it'll hit you this time around." The matter-of-fact tone was chilling, perhaps in the way that it seemed to dictate what the applicant perceived as nothing more than an objective fact. _One thing was that warrior, but another is this... Thing. If they get into battle, he might end up disposing of Reimu faster than I could take the tags from Marisa,_ Ponzu thought as she looked down at her own trembling hands. She could clearly see that the applicant was beyond her level, and his stance was much more guarded than his easygoing speech would have others believe. If she so much as moved a bee towards him, he would probably notice it came from her and retaliate: that, Ponzu apprehensively figured, was the strength belying the mysterious applicant.

"You said you wanted to negotiate?" Reimu lowered her weapon as she listened to Marisa, though her gaze remained affixed to the applicant as though to watch out for a sudden attack. "We can listen to you, but there's no guarantee that Reimu won't just beat you to the ground afterwards."

"That's alright," Gittarackur said in a surprisingly loud, enthusiastic voice, "Whether you can fly or use magic or whatnot doesn't mean you could actually stand a chance against me, anyway."

"I might just beat you up right now, if anything," Reimu countered with a glare contrasting greatly with Gittarackur's soulless smile.

"With that wound on your arm? Don't kid yourself," he dismissively said, shaking his head with accompanying stretching sounds indicating strain from his neck. Then, he pointed his right index finger upwards, while nonchalantly speaking: "But putting that aside, my target was number three hundred and seventy three, so the tag's only worth one point to your friend. Meanwhile, I happen to have killed somebody who was targeting me and got her tag, which is only worth one point to me. Still, to you, it could either be worth one point or three, if you're lucky."

"In other words...?" Reimu impatiently muttered.

"Let's trade them," he offered as he reached for a pocket in his pants and retrieved from it a number tag. He flipped it to Reimu and Marisa's side in order to showcase the number, and lifted it to their direct line of sight: on the tag was painted the number '82'. "My target's tag for the random tag I got. Either way, you have nothing to lose."

Marisa's eyes widened in shock as she pointed to it with a trembling hand. "Wait, that's my target's tag...!"

"Huh?" Reimu looked towards Marisa while grimacing in confusion, only to blink in disbelief. "Seriously?!"

"It says 'eighty two' on it, so it's gotta be!"

"Oh, this was yours? Isn't that convenient," he remarked before stretching his arm forward, giving the two an even better view for the tag. "My target's tag for your target's tag, then. How about it?"

Reimu looked towards the applicant with a scowl, her gaze so intense it was clear she was trying to scrutinize him. "Well, I don't mind trading this guy's tag for the one you have, but I'll only accept if you give the tag you have first. Then, we'll give you the one you want. Unlike you, we don't have any reason to trick you."

The applicant pensively hummed, taking in Reimu's conditions. "Sure," he responded in an almost too loose fashion to be taken seriously, but it seemed as though he was truthfully receptive to Reimu's proposition. To further prove it, he tossed the tag to Reimu, but Marisa was the one who caught it. "Take it and check if it's real, if you're so doubtful." Marisa stared at the tag, flipping it upside down and back to the number again, going as far as rubbing her finger on the number to see if it would come off. However, it seemed as real as the other tag she had pocketed; the one the strange applicant wanted.

Marisa nodded with a thin frown. "It's the real deal," she said before leaving the tag in her pocket while taking the one from the man Reimu had beaten. "Looks like he's tellin' the truth."

"Then I suppose we got lucky after all," Reimu said, "Just give the tag to him."

"Alright." Marisa threw the tag in his direction almost the same way he had, but even his reflexes seemed quicker than Marisa's as he caught the tag immediately. He stared at it for a moment, only to shove it into the pocket he had originally put the other tag. "Still, now that I got my target's tag and all, the tag from the snake-usin' guy's nothing short of useless. What're we gonna do about it?"

Ponzu immediately perked up from Marisa's words, finding great relevance in them. "I'd even give it to him just so we don't have to carry it around," Reimu said, "but he already has his target's tag." _They wouldn't mind giving the tag away? This could be my chance!_ However, Ponzu could not possibly reveal herself when that dangerous applicant lurked nearby; she decided to await his departure. _If I just come up to them and say I want the tag, there's a chance they would give it to me because they already have their target's tags. This is as easy as it could be._

"... I could take that tag," Gittarackur pensively interjected, leading Ponzu to freeze in place. _What...?_

"Why? Don't you already have all the points you need?" Reimu asked with genuine curiosity, her eyes slightly wide from the proposition as she thought he would be leaving when she spoke with Marisa about the extra tag.

"Let's just say there's probably someone else who could use the points," he answered flatly, though his eyes were narrowed, and his smile was wry, "and leave it at that."

"Someone else? You have friends?"

"Who knows? Are you gonna give me the tag or not, though? I don't mind either way," Gittarackur said in response to Marisa's question, constituting as nothing more than a way to avoid revealing anything about himself, truthfully.

"Fine, just wait a sec," Marisa said regardless of her displeasure, showing by a scowl, as she took her bag from her shoulders and opened it. Stuffing her hand into the bag, she found the tag after some rummaging through the miscellanous contents. Then, she threw that tag to the applicant, who caught it just as easily and effortlessly as last time. The sight had Ponzu's heart practically sink to the ground, and her efforts to move in any capacity proved fruitless. "There ya go."

"Alright," he said, "I don't have any more business with you or anything, so I'll be going now." He turned around in one awkwardly fast movement, and began to walk back to where he had come from. However, beyond the expectations of Reimu, Marisa and Ponzu, he stopped in his tracks midway into the action. "Oh, and by the way, you're being tailed by someone." The hand holding the newly-acquired tag was stretched to the side. "They're right there, if you want to take them down. Having an extra tag is more useful than you'd think."

With that, Gittarackur disappeared into the woods, all the while Reimu and Marisa had their focus only on the direction the mysterious applicant had pointed them towards: it was Ponzu's precise location. The moment she saw Marisa start to approach her with her flying broom, she scrambled to move and turned around so as to run, and her hand was positioned near her hat. Regardless, Ponzu herself knew she had been too late, and that there was no hope. Feeling as though set up by the strange applicant for no reason, she grimaced, and did not see herself resenting Reimu or Marisa for their actions against her. After all, in comparison to the people around her, she truly did not appear to be good enough to qualify as a Hunter. Her failure was almost too painfully legitimate.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

For an unperceivable amount of time, he remained in a realm as eerie as that of any youkai. His footsteps did not make a sound; it was as though he was walking on thin air. According to the two servants, their master had made it that way in order to accommodate for his presence. However, that problem was a minor one comparatively to the fact that he could not return to the Human Village. Naturally, the servants were equally uncooperative in the matter, as they did not seem to have any blatant awareness of Okina's intentions. The most they could do was keep him company through small talk, if not simply to snicker by his back as though amused by a rare creature.

If anything, his time in the Land of the Rear Door, or so the servants called it, was not a lonely one, for better or worse. Even so, he tired of walking through the same locations, memorizing coloured doors hoping that eventually, Okina would return so he could properly negotiate his release. The chances were minimal, but he could not stand for his senseless confinement any longer, not without knowing when he would possibly get to leave, if he could truly leave at all. He had ultimately asked one of the servants to call upon their master, claiming it to be an emergency. As far as he was concerned, his situation itself was nothing short of an emergency, and incurring the goddess' wrath would not have been worse than never seeing his home again. At that point, he expected a form of punishment, and he did not plan on turning his back to it.

Beside him were Satono and Mai, who smiled conversationally in face of the moderate entertainment they had attained from speaking to him about the location beyond the light green door directly above their position. Satono, meanwhile, had already stopped relaying his message to her master and was in the process of returning to his side, near Mai's current position. Both were staring in a particular direction, specifically right of him, as if expecting Okina to come from there. Would she, however? He decided to gaze away from Satono and towards the right to check, gulping in nervous anticipation.

Surely enough, the moment Okina's figure could be faintly seen from the horizon, Mai and Satono had quickly bowed, but uttered nothing. Okina, on the other hand, was entirely unfazed by her servant's movement, staring at only him as though he were the only person in the vicinity. The attention unsettled him, but he did not reflect that in his weary expression. He hid his trembling hands behind his back, and took to looking Okina in the eye so as to convey a sense of tension that would allude to the relevance of his business with her.

"I presume you had a worthwhile reason for summoning me here?" Okina steadily voiced, her assertive stance contrasting considerably with her indirect inquiry. In quick reaction to Okina's words, he nodded, only for Okina to smirk in light of his energetic disposition. "It seems your condition's improved rather drastically, as well. A normal human wouldn't be able to recover from the mental shock as fast as you have."

"Nen output accelerates recovery," he promptly said without much thought, and his frown deepened upon noting that he had talked to Okina directly in perhaps far too hasty a manner considering he was addressing a god.

Said god, however, snickered instead at what he assumed to be his own carelessness. "As expected, then. This is especially good for me, since you should now be able to speak out in more detail," Okina said, "Yes or no answers could only take me so far in understanding the entirety of Nen and your organization."

"More importantly," he uttered, admittedly without having fully processed what Okina had told him previously, "I was hoping to know about my circumstances." Still, he paused for one second, taking in Okina's slight change in her expression, as she allowed herself a single show of curiosity from her raising eyebrow. He tried to ignore the slight pain in his stomach, conversely. "You said I had to stay here indefinitely, but why would that be?"

"Is this the 'emergency' that brought me here?"

"I think it's important I know what exactly you're planning if I'm to cooperate properly," he stated cleanly, though his gaze drifted down to the abyss that he could somehow stand upon, instead. Okina's words weighed heavily on his shoulders, but after a second, and hearing Okina huff, he spared a glance, and found her still smiling.

"You've certainly become more fearless since the last time we spoke. It only proves you've recovered considerably." Her wording was clear, and the way she spoke condescending; not that she did not have the right to be that way, but it was unnerving. Was he even being seen as a human? "Very well, then. The faster I can achieve results, the better; I have no reason to omit information from you."

"Could you start by telling me what you meant with my confinement being 'protective custody', then? Personally, this is what's confused me the most," he said, now with his voice trembling lightly. If not for Mai or Satono's presence, he never could have even asked for the time, which had no effect on Okina's realm. Despite the many hours that he had spent soaking up that first day of consciousness, Okina's last words in regards to his situation lingered still, adding to the tension of his question, contrasted by what he perceived to be Okina's relaxed stance.

"It's only a hypothesis, but all things considered, you are now on my side." He could not help but look towards Okina then, blinking in confusion from the statement. So far, he hardly felt like he was on anyone's side now, particularly when his freedom was lacking. He tried staring at Okina regardless, in an attempt to gauge if she was telling him the truth; she spoke firmly: "If I let you into the village, where your group is stationed, they will know of this just from sensing the door on your back. Do you think they will let you off so easily upon knowing you've turned your back on them? Furthermore, your leader does not seem especially trustworthy considering your coma."

"Why would you say that?" he immediately asked, eyebrows furrowed from more than confusion, as memories apart from his time in the Land of the Rear Door caused frustration to surface finally. Try though he did to find Okina hesitating, she did not, and only returned his gaze just as intensely, her smile waning slightly.

"Because you did not choose to come to the shrine of your own accord that day," Okina answered in a tone more grave than the small smirk she was wearing, her voice lower than the booming, imposing volume he had expected. Her hand motioned to his direction, as if loosely pointing his way. Knowing there truly were no traces of a lie, his eyes were wide in surprise, flashes of his last moments in the shrine defining his shock. "You were being controlled by the mastermind, who happens to be the leader of your group. Just as you were losing your battle against the shrine maiden, their control on you was dispeled, and the shock caused your coma."

"Wha..." He almost as if jumped back, but could not even manage the movement due to the oppressive nature of the inhumane presences nearby, combined with the incredulity of Okina's revelation. As such, he clumsily stepped back, arms flailing back loosely before he had frozen in place, mouth agape. One of the frills on Satono's dress brushed against his leg, and Mai had momentarily caught his shoulder to assure he would not fall in front of Okina.

"You must have been possessed for quite a while," Okina remarked without regard for the panicked reaction, her smile almost too matter-of-fact to indicate true joy, expressing only a state of vacant, conversational amusement; as if she were discussing pure, hard science. "Otherwise, the psychological effect would not have been as strong. Since even you weren't able to give me a certain response the day I asked you, I'm sure you knew something about your controlled state."

"I..." He could not right away answer, and wondered, even, what he was going to say. What did he know, really? He knew nothing. What he remembered were not even thoughts, or pure words towards the mysterious youkai and the shrine maiden back then. However, he did know that he had told Okina nothing but the truth, whatever it happened to be. Half a moment allowed his open mouth to close into a grimace, and he muttered, "Well, that doesn't mean the leader would..."

"It could only have been the leader," Okina asserted over his hesitation, "because whoever is standing in for the mastermind has been controlling your leader to begin with, and only the mastermind can control other people."

"The mastermind...?"

"The entity behind this entire incident; they come from a dimension apart from Gensokyo. They've been manipulating you from the beginning," Okina explained, only to shrug. "Pitiful, isn't it? If you yourself feel ashamed of your actions now, I certainly wouldn't blame you." Her smirk reflected only a triumphant sense of superiority, apart from whatever pity she claimed to feel.

A hand was over his mouth as he pondered, though his thoughts were too scrambled for the effort to be fruitful. "They've, but then..." He paused in acknowledgement of his own incoherence, and took a few seconds to try to recover his bearing, only to weakly ask, "How can you even be sure that the leader is being controlled?"

"Do you think the mastermind would show themself in the Human Village where he could be easily found by the youkai?"

"But we were able to hide for this long," he argued, "You haven't found our base at all yet."

"We _haven't found_ it?" Okina uttered those words with a sly emphasis, and only ceased to stare at him when she chuckled wholeheartedly, as her eyes shut then. He watched the seconds she had allowed herself to show only amusement towards his assertion, as if it were so idiotic a notion, and as the laughter calmed, she eyed him back with a smile perhaps too genuine for his peace of mind. "Of course not! We haven't found it precisely because it has no worth being found! Whether you can mask your presence or not, scouring the entire Human Village at once is far too easy!" However, even that genuine joy did not last long in Okina's expression. Her shoulders had already drooped from her null reservations in front of the man, but she smirked deliberately, in a show of confidence, and spread both her hands on either side in a resigned shrugging motion. "And I'm sure even your leader knows that well. Yet, he risked his chances with you, knowing we could simply strike at you one fateful day."

"No, it can't be," he countered fiercely as his first instinct, finally able to glare at Okina without hesitation, though he could not quite see her under his outburst, "Seijirou would never do something like that!"

"But the mastermind would," Okina immediately stated, and figured only to frown now, peering into the hostility in his gaze defiantly. "They've abandoned you, no? Otherwise, you never would have been here to begin with."

For a moment, silence settled in the room. Okina had likely figured he had no response to her words and was frozen in place now, unable to continue the conversation in light of the implications of what seemed to be the truth. As such, she did not speak either, staring at him with further narrowed eyes instead, thinking whatever such an entity could; none of it was within the bounds of his imagination. Not even the truth sunk in as something he could imagine, and the only moving part of his body for that duration was a twitching hand, beyond the natural blinking of his eyes. He scowled, finding in himself the inevitably of trembling in fear, but not for his own life. "I, I can't believe this..."

"Believe it, for it's naught but the truth. You'd do well to heed my words," Okina said. "We are now allies, after all." The man failed to respond once more, deciding to avoid Okina's piercing gaze, cursing the fact that it did not remove him from the reality he was subjected to. It made him uneasy not to know her expression, but he also did not want to know or see how she faced how pathetic he truthfully was, considering he had never noticed. He had never noticed one of his friends was not being himself, chalking it up to his period of enlightenment. Okina continued to speak regardless of his surfacing anger, her tone vacant: "By the way, I don't know your name yet."

"It's Sakichi," he said through gritted teeth, but it was not her he was angry at, but himself. He shut his eyes, running a hand through his face, only to sigh. "Sakichi... Shirato."

"Well, Sakichi, I've told you your circumstances," Okina said quickly in comparison to Sakichi, the levity in her own voice almost staggering. "You've been betrayed by your own leader, who happened to be a completely different entity in disguise, and now you are working for your savior. Though, now that we're gathered here, I suppose this would be an opportune time to tell you the real reason why you're here, and when you'd get to leave."

"... I'm sorry."

He had muttered that suddenly, but there was no other sound to muffle it, so he was certain it was well-heard by Okina. However, she only said, and sternly, after about five seconds, "I never asked for an apology."

"I just..." Sakichi had a hand still over his head, unable to face her. He felt practically heavy, as though fatigued, but he could not help but figure that was only because he was holding back on emoting in front of Okina. "I might need more time to think this over after all."

"How impolite," Okina remarked, her voice indicating a bitter sort of amusement, "considering you were the one who called me."

"That was why I apologized," Sakichi said, unable to focus even on the nothingness of the ground , uncertainty ruling over the the intensity of his anxiety, and how well he could hear his heartbeat. "I didn't imagine I'd be this overwhelmed already. I really did think I could bear the entire explanation, but..." He shut his eyes then, hoping to reach some form of composure, but it backfired without notice, a surge of emotions causing him to clutch at the chest area of his own clothing. "Just the fact that my friend might have been just a puppet to some mastermind is already shocking enough. I don't think I could really absorb any more information even if you tried telling me, and— if it's true, there's a good reason you put me here, but it's still so nerve-wracking. You even said you were busy, so it might be very inconsiderate of me, but perhaps tomorrow—"

"Enough," Okina demanded, though more calmly than anticipated. Sakichi had flinched when he heard that word, already assuming she had been angered by his pathetic attempt at appeasing her, but he blinked quickly over the fact that he could faintly see Okina's orange garments, as he had not noted her stepping in his direction. "If you're standing up for yourself, you could use raising your head boldly and show some backbone, like you were trying to do before." Before he could even understand the full extent of Okina's words or even what exactly had occurred while she spoke, a pale, small hand was grasping below his chin, and forcing it upwards. The unexpected nature of the action had Okina's efforts in making Sakichi face her remarkably easy, and what she likely saw from him were eyes wide enough one could think they would leave their sockets. On his own end, he could fully witness Okina smiling slyly before loosely removing her hand from Sakichi to the point it almost dropped to its natural position; and only now had Sakichi decided to take a quick and nervous step back from the god, but dared not to avert his gaze. "Though, I wouldn't recommend crossing me, as much as you couldn't to begin with. I was planning on seeing you tomorrow, anyway, so there is no significant change in plans on my end. From now on, however, make sure your situation truly calls for my presence when you consider summoning me."

"Y-yes, Lady Okina!" Sakichi answered, startled still, though that behavior was, thankfully or otherwise (at that point, he could not decide which), first met with a huff. "I''ll, uh, try...!"

"Then my business with you is done here," Okina said, though, as she was turning around, she had stopped to finally direct her gaze to more than just Sakichi, glancing specifically to Mai and Satono. "Oh, and you two. Anywhere other than the places I explicitly forbid are allowed, if that wasn't clear. He isn't made with quite as much insanity as we, so he'll need some fresh air every once in a while." Such were Okina's last words before she finally turned around and stepped away from Sakichi, expecting no more conversation. Meanwhile, Mai was the first to poke Sakichi with her bamboo stalk so as to get his attention, and Sakichi jumped back with a frightened shout.

Hearing Satono and Mai then snicker at his expense, he snapped, "Wh-what?!"

"You're sure on edge," Mai commented with a smile, "Maybe you're not feeling blue anymore?"

Just in case, Sakichi stepped away further from Mai, and watched the two frown as they stared at that perhaps a bit too intently for his peace of mind. "I'd hope so, but he's still not looking too good," Satono said then, "I think the master scared him there."

"What a skittish guy," Mai blurted out without any thought put into her words, tilting her head aside from confusion as she noted Sakichi's grimace. "It's not like anything bad happened, right?"

Sakichi slightly farther from arm's length in relation to Mai and Satono, he pondered on their phrasing, showing concern, but not quite from any sense of familiarity. He sighed regardless, because he found he could not even start thinking straight about the two people in front of him when faced with everything else that had come crashing on him. "I don't even know..." Sakichi muttered in a seemingly hopeless fashion.

"Well, we don't know if you don't know," Satono retorted matter-of-factly, with one hand over her hip.

"I'll keep that in mind," Sakichi said lowly, lacking the energy to care about the vacant statement. "I'm already a bit overwhelmed, though..."

"Our master's telling you the truth, by the way," Satono quickly said, as if leaving no room for doubt after the way Sakichi had almost whispered that thought he did not notice escaping his lips. He did then, but was only able to frown wryly in light of being confronted with his own thoughts.

"I mean, why wouldn't she be? It's kind of dumb doubting our master when she saved you."

"... I guess you're right," Sakichi said, though weakly in an attempt to simply agree with Mai. However, he could not suppress the grimace that came after, and spoke nonetheless: "But it's still shocking. Wouldn't you have a hard time believing it if you were told your best friend was being controlled by someone all along, and that someone just controlled you and put you into a coma? That this same person is using around fifteen other people the same way?" Some anger surfaced amidst what he could consider a rant, but seeing both Mai and Satono offering him blank stares, he could not keep that up, and felt his shoulders heavier from his mentally weary state.

"I have a hard time just wrapping my head around what you said let alone believing it," Mai stated, blinking vacantly still. "Either way, the master said that, right? Then it's true."

"You sure make it sound simple," Sakichi commented dryly.

"That's because it is simple," Satono argued with a shrug. "As far as we can tell, you're the one complicating matters."

"Right? Just don't think too hard about it," Mai added, "If that's what's making you all sad, ignoring it should be a given."

"Besides, I'm pretty sure you won't be able to return here after the master is done with you, so you might as well enjoy this place while you can." Satono motioned towards doors in the vicinity while speaking, using them almost as an example or reference point. She effortlessly smiled, free of all worries. "It's not every day a human villager gets to stay here for so long."

"More like it's not any day a villager gets to stay here at all," Mai remarked, mirroring Satono's expression to an astounding degree, but Sakichi was more disturbed by the quick flow of information coming from the two girls. "In a way, you're a pretty lucky guy, Sakichi."

"Thanks...?" Sakichi scratched the back of his head, as if troubled, knowing barely what he had told them as his first response. He frowned sourly, admitting more assertively than his other statements, "I'm honestly kind of jealous of you right now. I sure wish I could be that carefree..."

"What's stopping you?"

"The only reason you're not being carefree is because you're going out of your way to care," Satono said, "So just don't care at all if you don't want to. Dance your worries away and you'll be a-okay!" Satono twirled joyfully in place, and stretched out a hand for Sakichi as if to invite him into the fun, but Sakichi did not move, and his frown did not change. He stared at Satono, noting her vacant, almost thoughtless gaze, though there was a reason she was endeavoring to speak with him in such a way, so he could not tell how genuine they were.

Sakichi pensively hummed to fill the silence as he made his own observations on the two, and wryly smiled as his pitiful try at a reassuring expression. "I still am kind of jealous, but I think I'll pass on something like that," he said, "Besides, just the fact that you're bothering to tell me all that is more or less cheering me up, so I'll leave it at that. In a way, I really should be the one thinking positive here."

Mai and Satono glanced each other's way, seemingly in a mix between confusion and curiosity, before turning back to Sakichi. "Are you hungry or something? We can take you somewhere, if you wanna," Mai offered, resting her chin on a vacant hand. "Master's orders and all."

"Which kind of food are you up for, by the way? Chinese? Indian?" Satono appeared to count the locations with each finger, glancing absent-mindedly at nearby doors, wherever they led to. "Or maybe you want a taste of your homeland's cuisine?"

"Oooh, I'm up for Indian!"

"I'm talking to Sakichi here, Mai," Satono admonished, only to point at Sakichi, who had not even gotten the chance to speak. "He's the one who's acting weird."

Mai's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Oh, yeah, guess he should be the one deciding that. Bummer."

"We can go almost anywhere and everywhere, so pick whatever you want." Sakichi felt Mai and Satono's intense stares on him again, and he scratched the back of his head, wondering why there would be such high expectations of the situation. Though, for all he knew, they had perhaps been staring intently at him for weeks on end.

"I'm not actually hungry, though..." he uttered tiredly, his voice quiet under the pressure of the two girls. They turned to each other briefly, but, to his surprise, they smiled deviously instead of showing any signs of being troubled.

"Oh, so he's actually always been weirdo who says he's being positive when he's being a downer," Mai commented, and Satono shrugged before facing Sakichi again.

"No worries, then," she said, "We don't judge."

"Uh..." Sakichi noted them walking his way with added confusion, but, in hindsight, the residents of the strange realm he was in were always bizarre. He tried smiling along as well, muttering, "If you say so..."

Satono had passed by him already, looking back only once to check on Mai. Sakichi decided to follow that gaze in case something could be happening, but in the process of turning around again, he was already being pushed forward from his back, presumably by Mai. "Anyway, onwards we go!" she exclaimed, confirming her location to him without a doubt, "You might not wanna eat now, but you will later! Better now than never!"

"Huh?!" Satono grabbed at his arm, and he almost tripped having to keep up with her running speed so suddenly.

"Sakichi couldn't decide, so I suppose we have to go with your pick, Mai!" Sakichi then saw Mai next to him, winking, while doors flashed in and out of his eyesight through the dark abyss.

"S-so we're going anyway?! You don't have to worry about that! I— And wait, where are we even—"

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

It was the second day already, but Hisoka was not in any particular rush to hunt his target, whoever they even happened to be. While he memorized the number, he certainly had not bothered to memorize to whom it corresponded to, and seeing as he did not remember their number beforehand, it meant they were nothing special. If it was 'nothing special' he needed to hunt, he could do that whenever he desired, regardless of whether they technically were his target. As long as he passed the exam, Hisoka did not see the need to dwell on his methods.

Instead, he took to watching the sunset, which reddened the sky, combined with the deeper redness of the butterflies that had been following him for quite a while now. The two sights matched in colour, and he found the concept of a butterfly drawn to blood amusing. In a way, the calming mood drove him away from the urge to kill, though he knew the time would soon come. He had yet to meet another applicant, but if he did meet one, their Fate would likely be sealed out of sheer convenience.

The presence he felt served to immediately prove him wrong, however, as that one was too valuable to kill. He only lightly cocked his head to the side, taking a glimpse of the familiar green clothing contrasting with the fading sunlight. "I brought you a present," Gittarackur stated before dropping a number tag on the ground next to Hisoka, who shifted his gaze to the number painted onto the tag: '105'. It was extremely far from his target number, but he grasped the tag regardless and looked up at Gittarackur.

"For me? You shouldn't have," Hisoka said in a mock modest fashion, though his smirk was telling of his amusement and lack of honesty. Gittarackur, meanwhile, was leaning on the same tree Hisoka was, but standing, staring towards another side of the horizon.

"It was nothing, really," Gittarackur responded with a light shrug, "It was given to me, after all."

"So this is second-hand? I did think it was too good to be true coming from you," Hisoka remarked, only to raise the tag further, almost obscuring the setting sun. He frowned again in face of the unimpressive number, and the lacking mental image it evoked. "Whose tag is this, anyway?"

"I don't know the details, but it used to belong to someone who could use snakes," Gittarackur answered vacantly, "I just took the tag because the girl peeping on my conversation was starting to get on my nerves with how she thought she was doing a good job of sneaking around and piggybacking off of my successful negotiation, and I assumed it was hers. By now, I'm pretty sure Reimu's beaten her up for tailing her."

"Reimu?" Hisoka voiced immediately, the keen interest now contrasting with his previous nonchalance. "She was the one who gave you the tag?" He glanced again at Gittarackur, with truthfully no results in finding if there was more to his story than he gave, but Hisoka's smirk widened regardless, and his eyes narrowed almost as if he could already see himself facing Reimu. "Now I'm starting to get jealous. I didn't think you'd go touching my things the moment I let them out of sight."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Gittarackur weakly argued, carrying no interest in convincing Hisoka. "Right when I was taking care of this annoying woman aiming her gun at me, she started beating my target up. I'd have honestly killed the two if you didn't like them so much. Though, if it makes you feel any better, Reimu's friend was actually the one who gave me the tag."

"You just speak of one woman after the other," Hisoka said, leaning back again on the tree, his eyes closed. The shade was cool and calming, perhaps disappointingly so now that he was reminded of better things to do, but the company made up for that at the moment. "You sure are popular today."

"Not that being popular's any convenient for someone like me," Gittarackur retorted, "I'd much rather stay in the background."

"Well, I definitely can't imagine you in the spotlight. By the way, how was Reimu doing?"

"She had a wound on her right arm, but it didn't look that serious. I'm guessing her target did it, because she was speaking like she'd gotten his tag already. Beyond that, though, she seemed as reckless and defenseless as she always does."

Hisoka chuckled. "She does have a lot of openings, doesn't she?"

"She almost acts as if she isn't accounting for her own death. Does she think she's untouchable or something?"

"Maybe she does," Hisoka said, "I wouldn't put it past her. Say..." Hisoka paused, and not exactly for the dramatic effect, but truthfully to ponder on whether it was the best idea to continue with what he would say. However, simply imagining the reaction motivated him enough, and his eyes opened to look towards Gittarackur again. "Do you think there could exist entire dimensions apart from this one?"

"What's this about all of a sudden?" Gittarackur asked after a few seconds of processing that Hisoka did mean that inquiry, and met Hisoka's gaze blankly. "And it's not like I ever actually thought about that before. Whether other dimensions exist or not doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned."

"So, supposing you'd find someone who comes from an entirely different dimension, in an entirely different world, you'd just accept that and move on?"

"Since when would I find someone like that? They're in another dimension for a reason," Gittarackur said, his smile wry if only because there was no easy way to frown like he wanted to. "If somebody claimed they were from another dimension, I wouldn't believe them, either, if that's what you were gonna ask."

Hisoka averted his gaze from Gittarackur, unsure of whether to laugh. He smiled loosely in that indecision, and commented instead, "It looks like the shock would be too great for me to actually tell you, then."

"That you found interdimensional aliens?"

"Something along those lines."

"Well, you're being weirder than usual, that's for sure," Gittarackur remarked, "Whatever it is you're so hung up on that's somehow from another dimension, it's got nothing to do with me, so I'll just ignore what you said and call it a day for me on this phase." Upon saying that, Gittarackur reached for the needles on his face and removed them one by one in quick succession. Hisoka's eyes witnessed every second of it with great interest, especially as Gittarackur's facial features began to frantically shift and turn in accordance to every needle taken.

"This is always such fun to watch," Hisoka commented in pure delight, almost as though he could start laughing at any moment from the sight. Meanwhile, Gittarackur's darker skin whitened, and the small patch of blue hair darkened and stretched as long as the thin man's waist. However, while his eyes were bigger and his face more open to expression, the man did not show himself any particular emotion.

In a great contrast to Hisoka, he retorted, "It's not all that much fun for the one who's doing it, though." Then, he took a deep breath. "This is much better..." He stepped away from the tree Hisoka was leaning against, only to look towards the ground. Hisoka lightly regarded the sight of the man tearing through the ground with only his outstretched hands and fingernails, forming a functional hole in a matter of seconds before his very eyes; it was not quite as impressive as his transformations, in Hisoka's view. The man practically hopped onto the hole, burying most of himself within him before turning to Hisoka with a vacant expression.

"Well, I'll be sleeping here until the last day. Good luck out there." After a casual wave of his arm, he sunk into the hole, and Hisoka spared him no parting words. Instead, his mind drifted to the number tag in his hand. According to his friend, Reimu had been the one to defeat the holder of the tag, and Hisoka could surely imagine Reimu fighting for any and all tags she could find until she reached her objective. In fact, the mental image only served to fuel his own motivation to move, and he finally stood from his sitting position.

"Two more points, huh..." Hisoka pocketed the tag and stared into the horizon with a calm smirk. "I might as well start hunting now." As if it were only an indulgence rather than an obligation, he reached his decision and stepped forward in search of opponents, unbeknownst to the fact that he was being tailed, as well.

* * *

 **. . .**

* * *

The strange, though not quite unfamiliar sight of the two religious rivals sat on a table drinking tea amicably together would have been peeked at least once by any resident, but Byakuren had explicitly warned against the fact, and closed the door as another sign of it. After minutes on end of listening to Miko, she had tilted her head lightly aside as she pondered on the truths she had gone out of her way to bring to her attention, and found firstly the need to nod. Then, calmly, she said, "Well, I'd had somewhat of an idea there was a foreign mastermind at hand here with what the youkai of the temple talk about with each other, but the true nature of this Nen power is certainly news to me. Considering its origins, it'd be rather difficult coming to a conclusion about it."

"Precisely," Miko said, "Wouldn't that task be better suited for a resilient, stubborn person such as yourself?" She sipped on her tea almost triumphantly, barely hiding her smirk when noting Byakuren's own telling gaze. "As it stands, there isn't a person more knowledgeable in magic I could possibly direct the poor soul to, and though I opted not to, the pursuit wouldn't be fruitless. After all, these possessions may affect even you, or your associates: uncovering how to manipulate Nen through our own methods could potentially save lives."

"And it just so happens you have better things to do than save lives, I see," Byakuren retorted, and Miko shrugged, smiling wryly.

"I'm simply being pragmatic here," Miko said, "I have still a number of things to resolve on my end, and you presumably have an interest in this investigation, considering I've also spotted you in the Human Village. If anything, you could say I'm speeding up the logical conclusion to your efforts."

"Though, I do wonder," Byakuren said, casually enough that it was easy to understand she was not doubting Miko. "What exactly are you so busy with?" Miko, however, had laid the cup of tea down slowly, and narrowed her eyes, though her smile remained intact.

After a few seconds of silence, she glanced towards the closed door, and opened her mouth to speak: "Nen of your concern, is what I could say," Miko stated, only to shake her head, "to the youkai watching us, but it isn't like I'm keeping any secret to begin with. Is she?"

Byakuren blinked in curiosity more than any other emotion as she watched the door to the room being open, revealing a casually walking youkai of a more than familiar appearance. "You'd think the earmuffs are just for show with how well you still can hear," the youkai in question remarked before closing the door behind her, giving an even clear view of her large tanuki tail swaying calmly with her movements.

"Mamizou?" Byakuren questioned, seeing her turn around with a light-hearted frown and adjusting her round glasses. "Did you have any reason to be here?"

"I'd imagine she's curious about the incident," Miko said as if to answer in Mamizou's stead, "I did hear a tanuki was exterminated by the group."

"Up to speed now, aren't we?" Mamizou commented with a wry smile, and sat on the table without hesitation, her seat between Miko and Byakuren, over no cushion to speak of. "But I didn't show myself just to eavesdrop, no. I had real business with the head nun here." Mamizou pointed to Byakuren by tilting her head slightly forward and to the left, where her seat was.

"That doesn't sound convincing coming from someone who was only standing still by the entrance," Miko retorted with a calm, small frown while placing her cheek over her right hand, supported by her shoulder, interest seemingly waning.

"I just figured I shouldn't interrupt." Mamizou shrugged, adding to the casual tone as she let herself glance at Miko as well now, smirking. "You probably think you're ahead of the game as far as the incident's concerned, but I'll have you know I don't need your information. Practically any youkai worth their salt out there's got the full picture by now. Well, except the ones from the Myouren Temple, of course."

"Why, I thought I was doing well for myself in this investigation," Byakuren said, her eyes slightly wide from the surprise she could not quite hide. "Do explain."

"You're acting alone, aren't you?" Mamizou said, "All the folk here are just about itching to do the dirty work for you, but you stopped them out of fear for their safety. By yourself, the only leads you're getting are surface-level facts, like the ones the hermit saint over there has." Mamizou stretched a hand to the side as her crude manner of pointing at Miko, who huffed indignantly.

"How presumptuous of you to assume my knowledge," Miko said, "Comparatively to the youkai focused on the decoy the mastermind's laid on the village, it should be no contest on whose information is most reliable."

"I won't sugarcoat the truth: everybody knows about the side effect of the mastermind's Nen power by now," Mamizou stated cleanly, though her gaze was less focused, directed to the only window in the room. The setting sun reflected on Mamizou's glasses, attributing to them a weak shimmer accompanying her sly expression. "This is because we've all chosen to join up with the one who's most in the loop about it. Do you know it, though?"

"Know what?" Byakuren asked warily, her eyes narrowed.

"Do you know what happens to the people whose possessions are dispelled?"

"You mean you found such a fellow?" Miko asked back as her first reaction to the ominous question from Mamizou, who looked towards Miko expectantly; perhaps suspiciously so. "As far as I've gathered, there have only been three people under the sleeping condition, not to mention other possessions that may have happened outside the village: one of them is presently missing. If you know someone whose possession has been dispelled, I'd have to conclude you have something to do with that very disappearance, and that you might have already done what I was asking Byakuren to do."

"You're close, but not exactly there," Mamizou said, "We don't know how to take care of these side effects. We just know what we were told, and we were told the people who get possessed go to sleep when the body's vacant, and continue like that when the possession's dispelled. In that sense, it makes sense assuming that Sakichi lad who's missing is still asleep, wherever he is."

"Then, you don't know his whereabouts, either? Wouldn't it be natural to think he would be with whoever you've been working for?"

"Rather, who even is this individual?" Miko questioned after Byakuren, who nodded lightly in approval of that line of logic as well.

"Oh, you know her," Mamizou drawled out loosely, fiddling with the pipe on her hand. "Everybody knows her. It's the gap youkai working in the shadows."

"I see," Byakuren said, frowning bitterly as though troubled, "Ms. Yukari's trying to solve this incident, then."

 _Something isn't right here,_ Miko thought meanwhile, as she remembered all the information she had collected. "You've all started working together, but there are no signs of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, who you'd have all relied on before even thinking of joining hands. Wouldn't you say that's odd?"

"… It's odd, alright," Mamizou admitted after a two second pause, finally frowning along with the two she was speaking with. "I heard she's safe, but knowing _her,_ safe could mean 'asleep somewhere, taken by the mastermind'. Either way, if she's not doing anything, we all have to stand up for our interests. That's just how it works."

 _I knew it. The only ones who know where Reimu truly is are the Lunarian and I. Though, by this tanuki's testimony, it would seem that dastardly youkai has a hand in the shrine maiden's adventures as well..._ Too distracted with her thoughts to respond to Mamizou, it was Byakuren who took to speaking after humming pensively, though she sent a glance Miko's way as if to gauge how she felt about the information: "Then, I imagine you've come here to speak to me in the name of those interests," Byakuren said, "So, what are they? You wouldn't have admitted to them in front of Miko if you couldn't talk in front of her, as well."

"You're right as can be," Mamizou said, pointing Byakuren's way enthusiastically with her pipe, "And why wouldn't you? There's no downside to foiling that pesky mastermind's plans, whether for you or the hermit. The truth is, I stopped by to ask for your help."

"What a coincidence," Byakuren remarked, "Two people requesting my help. And what would you and your own mastermind want from me?"

"You two were already talking of consulting one of the possessed villagers, right? The one called Seijirou," Mamizou said, and that name was enough for Miko to blink as though to gain further focus on Mamizou's words, curiosity reflected in her gaze.

" _I_ was charged with the matter," Miko interjected conversationally, only to look Byakuren's way, "but I have other business to tend to. I was hoping Byakuren here would investigate the possessions for me."

"And I'm here to tell her to shelter Seijirou," Mamizou asserted with a grin indicative of only wry amusement, "for the good of Gensokyo."

"Shelter? What do you mean?"

"He needs to disappear from the village, plain and simple," Mamizou explained to a wary Byakuren with a clear and carefree voice, "If you've noticed, there are rumors the youkai are behind Sakichi's disappearance. To make that spread, it only makes sense they gotta keep going missing. Thing is, these villagers gotta be put somewhere while everything gets fixed, and there's still the whole investigating the possessions and Nen thing you should do, so there's no better place to keep him than here."

"… And he wouldn't be the only one to disappear, would he?" A hand hovered closely to Byakuren's left cheek as she had uttered the first implication that occurred to her.

"They're all gonna disappear as long as they're possessed," Mamizou said, "Well, there's more to it than that, but that's more of a secret of the trade I can't share with you yet. I'm just telling you your part in this. Or, what? You don't wanna help the youkai?"

Byakuren closed her eyes, seemingly to ponder without distractions, while Miko noted Mamizou's loose frown as disingenuous. She grimaced, and claimed, "I see where you're going with this. You're taking back the fundamental nature of youkai from the sense of safety Nen could have created for Humanity."

"Got a problem with that, now?" Mamizou retorted, "You know where you are, and it's not a people's land."

Mamizou's stare was almost like a taunt, but one of confidence and pride rather than anger. Even then, there was no true expectation out of Miko's response; she knew that, as well. She had certainly heard that logic before, and she noted that quickly, but, most of all, she wondered if, perhaps Eirin, when she told that to Miko, had predicted situations like these would arise, forcing Miko to think of them. Whether or not that was the case, seeing herself not victorious from a challenge warranted a bitter huff from Miko, but she attempted to smile away the fact. "It really isn't," she said, even if somewhat somberly because she still remembered the way she spoke to the villagers as though she was committed to help them, and she was sure she was. She was certain she had wanted Byakuren to save him; but, not all methods could be correct. "I suppose I'll come to owe that old lady an apology..."

"Not quite," Byakuren said, leading Miko to blink in slight surprise, finding the confident smile on Byakuren's features sudden. "I'll shoulder the burden of responsibility for this."

"What do you mean?"

"I've listened to both your offers," Byakuren further claimed, looking towards Miko, and then towards Mamizou, "and I decided to stand up for my own interests, as well."

"So you're in, is what you're saying?" Mamizou asked while vacantly scratching her head.

With a hand over her chest, Byakuren spoke calmly: "I'll agree to cooperate, but you'll leave the methods to me."

Mamizou hummed lowly as a rough form of acknowledgement more than anything, and shrugged off-handedly. "I don't see why not," she said, "It's not like you were given any specifics. As long as those villagers aren't seen by any human, you're a free woman."

"Then, we have a deal," Byakuren said, and she stretched a hand towards Mamizou, who swiftly responded with her own to shake it. "Is that all you came here for?"

"Nothing more, nothing less," Mamizou said, "I'll leave you two on your own now. I'm on the busy side, myself, after all. If everything goes fine, we might all meet again at some party. I'll look forward to that!" Mamizou stood energetically from her seat, glancing at Byakuren, and Miko as if to gauge the two. Then, she waved nonchalantly and stepped away with an inconspicuous smile, leaving the two religious rivals to stare each other's way.

Contrary to when Mamizou was in the room, Byakuren's smile had faded into a calm frown, and Miko was wryly smiling, only to remark after a few seconds of silence,"To think there would come a point I would see you take part in what essentially is a kidnapping."

"In the end, Mamizou's offer converges with yours," Byakuren said, "If it means saving them from their possession without the risk of the mastermind getting to them again, it seems like a good idea."

"It was why I didn't object," Miko said faintly, not quite as a mutter, but her voice was low enough that the assertion was weaker than usual. _It would also spare me the effort of confronting the body the mastermind has been using to infiltrate my dojo. Though..._ She cast her eyes to the table, particularly to her reflection upon the half-full cup of tea, her eyes narrowed and eyebrows furrowed. "Still, this is a bizarre chain of events. Perhaps too bizarre, even." The expression Miko was wearing seemed almost like one of frustration from Byakuren's perspective, and it justified further why she had let go of her smile.

"… I've thought this since you came in, but you look like you have something on your mind," Byakuren said slowly, testing the waters in regards to how receptive Miko was to the offer, "If it helps, I could listen." Miko had not immediately reacted, but she did raise her head again to meet Byakuren's gaze, which was nothing but gentle.

A quarter of a moment was how much time it took for Miko to smile just as gently along with Byakuren, but only after she had sighed lightly. However, the voice in which she conveyed her genuine words was heavy, even if she had no fears or anxiety in her: "I suppose foreign influences always cause new discourse," Miko said, glancing at the window once as she thought of places beyond the temple, "This time around, I found myself cooperating with the Lunarians from the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, if only because I found the medicine-seller stumbling over her own attempts at an investigation."

"You of all people, working together with the people from Eientei?" Byakuren questioned in moderate awe, using one hand to elegantly, though loosely cover her mouth. "Now this is a surprise."

"They've always been a troubling force in Gensokyo, in my eyes," Miko said vacantly as though reminiscing, her smile assuming somewhat of a bitter edge as she laid eyes again on the tea cup, which she was now grasping. "Admittedly enough, I thought I could have some leverage over them in this incident that I could use to subdue their ill intentions. Laugh however you want, but it instead seemed as though I knew nothing of them yet. I have still much to know of them." She paused, taking a deep breath in order to keep composure, or perhaps simply to dispel her own bitterness. "Perhaps of Gensokyo itself." Whichever it was, Miko dismissed it all and took a sip of the tea she had grabbed, and Byakuren's frown deepened the more she stared at her supposed rival.

"Now, you might not be giving yourself enough credit," Byakuren said, watching Miko still smiling without a true sign of contentedness, as if for its own sake, even after she put the cup down. "You've always been up to arms in trying to understand the Human Village, and how it relates to Gensokyo. You at least always seem to be trying your best."

Miko regarded those words with a dismissive wave of her hand, saying, "I don't need your pity, Byakuren Hijiri. I know my own shortcomings when I see them. There is still a lot I need to learn." Byakuren grimaced in light of Miko's continuing pessimism, but where she thought first that she would finally forfeit the wry smile, she found Miko instead beginning to smirk. "Thus, all I need to do is come to learn it. I doubt only because I don't know: to turn away the unknown is to deny the potential for greater heights. Needless to say this is an easy mistake to fix, since it's only in my best interests to reach greater heights than I have already." In Miko's gaze was the confident shine of usual, her stance accordingly radiant as she gesticulated calmly but enthusiastically about her own plans.

Byakuren blinked for a second or two simply taking that mood shift in, and managed a small smile if only because she was truly relieved for Miko. "Well, I'm glad to see you weren't under the weather after all," Byakuren said, though weakly, "I suppose there wasn't much to worry about on that end."

"But of course," Miko quickly said, "Were you even considering that option seriously? If so, you underestimate me."

"... Maybe so," Byakuren concluded vacantly, and inwardly noted she was perhaps the one who had more to learn about Miko than she thought; not that she would try harder, however. To shift the topic away from the matter, she spoke more vividly: "Though, what are you planning to do, exactly?"

"The best way to study another is to be in their presence," Miko claimed, "The incident would have to be solved so I could be free to amplify my general efforts, but, for now, I can start with what I have ready access to already."

"I see..." Byakuren was silent in the seconds she thought over Miko's course of action, and she could not help but a assume a cheerful smile, the only part that slipped past her when she tried to suppress chuckling. "Personally, I'd say you're over-thinking this matter, but I would be nothing but proud of you if you ended up having a better understanding of others. I wish you luck."

"You're the one who is too comfortable with your own place in the world," Miko retorted casually, seeing through the slight condescension in her tone, but finding it amusing, instead. "If you'd expanded your own horizons, you'd gain more knowledge and power."

"To each their own," Byakuren said calmly, only to blink absent-mindedly. "But now that I think about it, you've been investigating Nen beforehand, weren't you? Do you happen to know how this power works?"

"Hm? As a matter of fact, I do," Miko responded, and gestured towards herself smugly. "I interrogated a few members of that group, you see. When it comes to Nen, it would be no lie to consider me one of the more knowledgeable parties."

"Then, since you want me to investigate as well, I'd appreciate it if you told me all you know," Byakuren stated cleanly, frowning as she thought finally on the most important part of the conversation the two had had, "especially in case I were to face a Nen-user on the way." She locked eyes with Miko, showing the full extent of her intentions to see the actions asked of her through, and Miko snickered simply imagining the fact.

"Very well," Miko said, "I'll tell you everything I know. Incidentally, I should wish you good luck as well." Byakuren tensed, seeing Miko frown in accordance with the mood. The room darkened with the sky, and Miko's narrowed gaze was shaded through it. "Considering the visit you got just now, there may be a lot more ahead of you than of me." Starting with that as her first show of concern for Byakuren, Miko had spoken through the rest of the afternoon, with Byakuren simply nodding along and asking questions until the evening was already upon them. Miko had left the temple confident, but Byakuren, hearing about the new power in Gensokyo wondered exactly what the mastermind could be aiming for with their actions. She did not know now, but she concluded to herself then that she would come to know, and very soon if she was planning to act on the fact.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

* * *

I was looking forward to this one, and it certainly was a challenge! Besides, the Touhou scenes were also very hard to write, so it was overall fun, but very difficult on me. Speaking of difficulty, the first scene was also very hard for me to write for some reason. I think it may have been because of all the possibilities I had with the dialogue. And also the fact that Leorio kept bickering with Marisa lol And Killua. But Killua is always difficult to write. Either way, I did like seeing Reimu and Marisa talk to just Kurapika and Leorio for once, even if for a little while.

Leorio's such a worrywart with a big heart, gah! He's hard to control and sometimes I can't quite branch out as much as I want to. At least Kurapika's still very relaxing, and he makes conversation much smoother. Still, that part where they were just following canon until Leorio noticed Reimu just sticking around was kind of gold to me. And I finally got Hanzo involved with Reimu directly, after showing him off for 3 chapters, hahaha. I honestly could have made Reimu and Marisa have any target I wanted and shuffle every target, but I didn't feel like it had a lot of meaning that way, so I left the known targets as they were and decided to pick from the people who didn't have targets made explicit. That way, I could focus on characters I wouldn't have another chance to write about rather than the main ones, and I could also explore other possibilities within the narrative that wouldn't be as obvious.

Additionally, the number of applicants was 26, which made the phase possible; it makes me glad Marisa took the Hunter Exam. Naturally, while I didn't shuffle the canon targets, Reimu and Marisa's presence implies that some original targets had to change; it just so happens the ones that changed were the ones you never knew about. The targets were actually pretty easy to pick for me: the moment I knew Hanzo had never had the person targeting him revealed, I decided it'd be fate for Reimu to have him as her target considering chapters 9, 11 and the last chapter where she'd momentarily stared at him. It was too perfect to ignore! Beyond that, I also wanted Marisa's target to be either Siper or Shishito because of Chapter 6, seeing as they needed relevance somewhere for it to go full circle. Since it seemed like Shishito could have been the target of one of the three brothers according to the wiki, I decided against him and went for Siper. If I wanted some hard conflict, I could have had one of the targets being Kurapika or something, but meh. It would just be a burden on the story since there's no way I'd make Kurapika fail for the sake of Reimu and Marisa, so it'd just be emotional filler. Besides, I wanted to get away from characters Reimu and Marisa interacted with, not talk to them some more in this chapter.

Another thing concerning the number of applicants was that I had to do some mad calculations to ensure the story's progress. I hadn't put much thought into Reimu and Marisa's targets, but after doing so, I realized I had to give great consideration to the chapter and its every parts or I'd accidentally do something horrible to the narrative lol Everything is just fine now, though, and Reimu and Marisa ended up getting their tags. In addition, Reimu got her arm slashed, which isn't especially good, but I don't really try to allude to Reimu being useless now or anything since she still has her right arm and can fight like a charm. Another thing is that she was almost going to get beaten by Hanzo after she got his tag: this is actually the most Reimu's struggled so far in a fight. The only reason Reimu's plan worked on him was because he let his guard down on her for her reckless attitude. Still, even if Hanzo is formidable, I didn't want him to be unscathed. I wanted the fight to have a more or less even result so that neither side looks bad, and Reimu getting his tag was an honest mistake on his part. I considered having him throw shuriken or something from afar to get Marisa, but I figured he would be able to tell they could dodge it because he's experienced enough to make such guesses.

The next scene was mostly commentary just because I felt like it'd be boring if I had a scene with Reimu and Marisa talk about the precise exposition involving Reimu's plan and fight with Hanzo. As such, I just had the Hunter x Hunter four guess around so you could draw your own conclusions, since that's infinitely more interesting. Besides, I felt like that would make Reimu and Marisa's actions less self-contained if the other characters can talk about them while they're not there. Maybe it's just me, but I really want to make sure it does feel like they're there, you know? There would be no point if they were irrelevant to anything. The conversation between Gon and Killua was also pretty good, just because I could actually write their 12 year old banter, and that's wildly different from the kind of dialogue I've been writing so far.

I admittedly didn't put much thought to who would target Reimu and Marisa either, but after the mad calculations I mentioned, Bourbon just popped to mind, and then I decided that to break away from the usual neutral Reimu and Marisa perspective, I'd just switch to none other than Ponzu, since that would give me an opportunity to write her, even if most of it were thoughts and narration. Bourbon didn't have a very set personality beyond Tonpa's mention of the fact that he kept grudges, so I didn't dwell much on him, either; I just wrote him calm and confident, but unassuming. Meanwhile, Ponzu does have some spotlight in the series, and I rather like her character: she looks all cute, but she's very observant, practical and rational, and also kind of pessimistic. The contrast is very fun to me, and the range of stuff she can do with her bees and chemicals and whatnot was very good for my creativity. She also contrasted greatly with Reimu or Marisa in terms of perspective and stance, so how she reacted to them was pretty neat to think about, especially with how carefree Reimu and Marisa were.

I also didn't want her to lose face (I tried not having Bourbon lose too much face, but it just so happened Reimu and Marisa had stolen his cave), so I considered her actions very carefully and I think she had a legitimately solid plan to get the tag from Marisa. A deadly plan, but a solid one, too. Sucks that Reimu's pretty strong, and I don't think she'd take all that much time beating Goz just because fights are normally not supposed to last that much time. Oh, Goz is Gittarackur's target, by the way; the guy who wanted to fight Hisoka before his death. Thankfully, he's now alive all because of Reimu and Marisa lol In comes Gittarackur, the savior of the story! Well, we all know who he actually is, but still.

I don't think Gittarackur would bother with a facade just to speak to Reimu and Marisa who clearly don't care, so I just had him be like he always is (even as Gittarackur), and he's actually really fun to write? With Hisoka, you can kind of be on the fence about how fun he is, but the moment I wrote Gittarackur, I had a blast, no doubt about it. Reimu and Marisa were naturally very wary of this guy who just threw a needle their way all of a sudden and looks all creepy, but he was a pretty big help to them, all things considered. His personality, though! I love it, Gittarackur's all conversational and simple-minded despite how he looks and his lacking expressiveness and that's plainly awesome. A lot of people tend to make his speech flatter and to the point, even stoic, but this is the guy who, upon being asked whose tag Siper's was, said something along the lines of 'Oh that's from this one chick who was aiming a gun at me, I didn't like her face so I killed her right away' (not literal translation) so I don't really see him as emotionless. He's more casual than anything. It's like he doesn't care or overthink: what he feels, he just does; end of story. Well, he thinks, of course, but he doesn't complicate matters, if anything. This makes him very straightforward as a character (not honest, but straightforward nonetheless), and that's really refreshing to write. In a way, Gittarackur feels rather self-centered, which gives him some commonality with Hisoka.

Incidentally, I knew that the conversation Hisoka had with Gittarackur couldn't be the same as in canon but that it had to happen anyway, so I included it in the story and made it a stopping point. I'm still not sure if I wanted it in Hisoka's perspective, Gon's perspective or Gittarackur's, but I more or less settled on Hisoka's for the hell of it, and as you can see, he wasn't thinking especially deeply. The way Hisoka interacts with Gittarackur is very different from how he is with others; there's a lot more banter, for one. I like it and all, but it's much harder to write him that way than when he's just being conversational. It might not seem like it, but this conversation they had holds a lot of meaning, too. I hope it doesn't just look like Reimu is the center of the Universe or anything: a lot of these scenes have Reimu as a topic just because they're a result of something Reimu did, and I can't really help that since that's what's relevant to the plot right now :/ Either way, there's more to the conversation than meets the eye, but my favorite part was definitely Hisoka asking Gittarackur about what he thought of other dimensions. I think this says a lot about how amusing Hisoka finds Reimu and Marisa's origins to be lol

As for the Touhou scenes, I honestly didn't really know how I'd structure the scene with Miko at first. What I did know was that I wanted a scene where Miko would find all that stuff out and opt out of solving the incident after all. Beyond that, I was mostly confused on how I'd do it, until I got all of these ideas and not only solved the problem, but enhanced my plotline real fast. Which of course birthed the scene where Miko is being nice and polite to an old lady. Like, I don't know, I just don't think Miko would be all domineering to this poor innocent old lady when she's investigating disappearances. Also, why is it that I'm always making Miko the detective? ^^' Well, she's so suited for the role personality-wise, it ends up happening before I know it. This time around, Miko's purpose to the incident was minimal, but it was needed at this stage of the story.

I was gonna make it a big cliffhanger before who Miko was gonna call, but I figured it'd hurt the narrative more than help it, so I just got Byakuren to show up right now, along with Mamizou. With this, you now have some idea of what each party's doing, especially Mamizou, who expanded on possibly the part of the story that had been the most vague so far. All things considered, this was actually her second appearance, but Miko didn't know that, hahaha. I actually like Mamizou a lot, and the reason she's in this story is really because she tends to have big roles in Touhou plot lines ever since she showed up. Mamizou's just usually in on whatever's happening, apparently, and I totally appreciate it because she's all quirky and down-to-earth while also being on the assertive and sly side. She's a really fun character to write, character voice and all. I feel like if I went overboard with the rural sort of speech from Mamizou it'd just sound lame, so I'm aiming for a sort of slight sly granny feel here, if that makes sense.

Then there was Byakuren, who I was thinking needed to show up for the longest time. I mean, the incident's about youkai, and she's all about helping youkai. Not only that, but I haven't written Byakuren all that often, so I was thinking I'd take the chance to do so in this story as well: it all just sort of clicked, and there she is, in all her glory. I like Byakuren because of how flawed but well-meaning she is, so I really try to stray from the saintly image the fandom's cultivated and are in the process of erasing with the years. Byakuren's actually short-sighted and sly, valuing harmony overall. I think she's clever, but unassuming most of the time, making her a more subtle character. To further specify, I think it's good to compare her with Miko: in Touhou 15.5, Miko sees Yukari and immediately distrust her, only getting angry at what she perceived to be Yukari's opportunistic impertinence while Byakuren chose to communicate with her. However, when it came to Touhou 14.5, Byakuren wanted to seal the balls so no one could use them for evil, and Miko wanted to research them to understand their properties to better solve the incident.

Byakuren's smart, and Miko's also smart, but it seems they apply their intelligence in different spots. Byakuren doesn't care about discovery and knowledge or whatever if these can hurt the peace: she cares about the youkai and people around her, and how they relate to her religion. Byakuren is someone who tries to be her own ideal, but doesn't really fuss about it, as well: she sort of takes life one step at a time, and knows how to navigate her life in a way that benefits her overall while maintaining others relatively happy. She's seen tons of people, had multiple different experiences, and as such knows how to deal with other people. This contrasts with Miko, who can actually read people, but doesn't seem to be able to understand them at a deeper level (as in, get to know them). In theory, she knows what's up, and then there's practice, where she's not really listening to you, because as far as she's concerned, she's already formed an idea of you that shouldn't be wrong. Miko is very pragmatic and rational: she cares about things like progress and her own position in the world, and her religion is just a factor that reflects on this position. Rather, Miko cares about improving what's there, and as such cares about the state of the world, but she's also pragmatic enough to know it's for the best to watch out for herself before others. Though, she does want to help others. She thinks that since she is basically the peak of humanity who'll only get better from here on out (seeing as she's constantly striving for it), it's only natural she should be the one to lead others to the same position, and that her own words are the best suited for everyone she faces. Miko is arrogant, but she's somehow not selfish at all, and countless times she's trying to gather influence by giving people knowledge, solving incidents and generally trying to help out. Even though she has a hard time listening to you, she's actually trying her best.

In a way, Byakuren just happens to actually be more grounded than Miko is, for better or worse. As such, she's also less naive. This is why she doesn't dream of much, and doesn't ask for much: even though she's also trying her best, she's doing it in a realistic, one day at a time manner. Meanwhile, Miko tries her best on what's more or less a lost battle, because she thinks, deep down, that she's the best person to be heeded, rather than the others, who are more flawed or aren't trying as hard. However, deep down, she knows she won't actually make it that big, so it's more like a pastime before she hopefully becomes a celestial or something. It's a really interesting dilemma that actually paints Miko as more idealistic than Byakuren while also being pragmatic at the same time, a kind of naivete that says a lot about how she's interacted with others before Gensokyo. If we think about it, most of her life she spent asleep, maybe just listening to desires, while Byakuren was always alive, experiencing things. This makes Byakuren reasonably smart more out of 'street smarts', and Miko actually just a genius who could use understanding people more. This is also why Miko's better at debate, while Byakuren's less hard on the theory. In writing this scene, I had to think about their dynamic, and I think that since Touhou 15.5, you get to know them really well, and what happens there is more or less the result of the development that Byakuren and Miko actually got to know each other better beyond their own ideals, making it so they trusted each other. At first, I had my doubts about Touhou 15.5's developments, to be honest, because they felt kind of surface level in relation to their characterization, but in really pondering on how that reflects on the full picture of these characters, you can definitely tell ZUN was at least watching over that plot line, because there was actually a lot said about what happened in that game for both the characters. In fact, basically every work they've featured in, ZUN seems to expand on their qualities and flaws in a way so fair you really gotta congratulate the man for his writing. He could've been biased, but he instead made it so you also got to know the two characters, and gave them depth that indicates more than a religious faction. It's further genius if you think that them getting along is basically like two politicians from opposing parties getting along with each other.

But I digress, lest I keep ranting on and on about how Miko and Byakuren are great and start throwing out really specific canon examples. The point is, there's a whole character arc with the dynamic between Miko and Byakuren, so I had to actually consider it, and I think they just learned to see past their differences and tolerate each other's personalities because they realized the other party's good at heart. So they're on good terms, but I don't think they wouldn't make jabs at each other in good fun. It was definitely nice that Miko trusted Byakuren with her own plans and Byakuren offered to be a sounding board, just showed the progression and I love Touhou, okay?

Anyway, Okina's scene— Can I call it Okina's scene, or should it just be Sakichi's scene at this point? Either way, the fact that the guy who was unconscious was also the missing Sakichi was no plot twist, but I just wanted Sakichi's perspective to have an ambiguous mood because of its depressive nature. Sakichi himself is actually kind of interesting in personality: unassuming but straightforward, and prone to recklessness despite being just as prone to worrying. This makes him clash with Okina a little, but he'd honestly clash with any other Touhou character. My favorite part of this scene was of course Mai and Satono (but Okina was pretty good too when she was being light-hearted), mostly because the information earned from Okina wasn't as much as I expected, even if some stuff was thoroughly cleared up. But then again, if I just revealed everything in one go, it would be rather overwhelming. I was originally going to start the chapter with Sakichi talking to Mai, but I wasn't getting much ideas for conversation and it wasn't like the conversation was very meaningful so I decided to leave it to the end. In a way, they're a good foil to Sakichi, which is why I felt like they should be seen talking so you could see their standing, especially since they'll be spending a lot of time together. No romance, though. Just saying. Either way, look forward to the next chapter? Phase Four is probably gonna be done by then!


End file.
